Meta Platforms Jumps 13% in a Week After Connect as Muse AI Agent Drives 30% Monthly Rally

META shares climbed about 13% last week following the company's Connect conference, where it unveiled a $1,299 VR headset, camera-free Ray-Ban smart glasses and a Muse Charm device, all built around its Muse personal AI agent. Muse, launched September 8, quickly reached the top of Apple's U.S. free iPhone app rankings, and Meta named partners including Shopify, Walmart, Disney and IMAX.

The weekly move extends a sharper run: the stock is up about 30.56% over the past month but only about 0.69% over the past year, so the rally has largely rebuilt ground lost earlier. Deutsche Bank raised its price target to $820 from $750, citing fast Muse adoption and differentiation in AI agents. Monetization math circulating after the event is speculative: one aggressive scenario, 25% of Meta's 3.6 billion daily users paying $10 a month, would imply about $108 billion in annual revenue, while a conservative case of 5% paying $5 a month implies about $11 billion. Neither is company guidance.

The skeptical read is that the rally is running ahead of the evidence. Meta has not disclosed Muse usage or revenue, second-quarter free cash flow fell to $784 million from $8.55 billion as capital spending reached $30.12 billion, and second-quarter diluted EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.22 consensus. Meta has guided 2026 capex to $130 billion to $145 billion. The next checkpoint is the October 28 third-quarter report, where consensus EPS is $6.40 and revenue guidance is $61 billion to $64 billion; any disclosed Muse engagement data would be the first hard test of the agent thesis.