Shares of Meta Platforms (META) surged 11% on Monday to finish the session at $741.25, following a decision by Wells Fargo to elevate its price target from $640 to $796.
According to analyst Ken Gawrelski, early interest in Muse—Meta’s fresh artificial intelligence agent—strengthens the company’s AI narrative ahead of the Connect conference on Wednesday.
Muse Turns Heads on the App Charts
Meta introduced Muse on September 8. Powered by Muse Spark, a model family designed specifically for agentic workflows, the AI agent handles practical functions like scheduling appointments, dispatching emails, and completing forms, going beyond basic Q&A capabilities.
For a brief period, Muse claimed the top spot among free applications on Apple’s US App Store. While app trackers displayed mixed results—with certain metrics placing it fourth or fifth overall—it secured a solid number two position within the Productivity category.
Data from analytics provider Sensor Tower indicates that US iOS downloads escalated from tens of thousands during the initial launch phase to several hundred thousand over a two-week span. Meta itself has refrained from verifying these numbers.
This momentum represents a turning point following a period plagued by heavy infrastructure investments and delayed AI models, challenges that previously prompted Wall Street investors to shift their capital toward competitors.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg enlisted Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, to restructure the corporate AI laboratory—a development that analysts now connect directly to the debut of Muse.
Appetite for Frontier AI Outweighs Safety Worries
This stock rally unfolds amid ongoing discussions surrounding AI advancement. Skeptics continue to question whether market enthusiasm outstrips genuine safety risks, though Zuckerberg has previously dismissed catastrophic AI warnings by asserting that market competition among laboratories naturally regulates development pace.
Furthermore, Zuckerberg has positioned Meta’s goals on a grander scale, advocating that superintelligence ought to be accessible to the general public rather than restricted to a select few research facilities.
The market activity on Monday indicates that these safety conversations have failed to dampen investor appetite for companies driving frontier AI advancement. Both the S&P 500—which finished up 1.49% at 7,764—and the Nasdaq Composite—which advanced 2.26% to 27,122—posted gains, though Meta’s climb significantly outpaced the broader indexes. Elsewhere in the sector, Alphabet (GOOGL) climbed 1.55% to reach $354.97, while Snap (SNAP) moved up 3.07% to $5.70.
As Meta approaches Wednesday’s Connect conference, a central inquiry remains: can the initial enthusiasm surrounding Muse translate into sustainable user engagement rather than temporary app store placement? The resolution to that question will help determine if the company’s AI pivot is truly delivering results.