Meta Is Up 30% in a Month. Is Its New AI Agent Really That Good?
Meta's new Muse AI agent has Wall Street buzzing and shares surging, but the company has yet to reveal a single usage or revenue figure to back up the hype before a critical October earnings report.
A recent Barron’s Roundtable segment on Fox Business put Meta (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) put Meta’s new Muse AI agent through several real-world tasks, from finding forgotten subscriptions to helping book a flight. The demos were impressive, and Meta stock has rocketed more than 30% over the past month.
But Meta has yet to disclose usage or revenue from Muse, while its enormous AI spending is already weighing on cash flow. Here’s what investors should know before Meta reports earnings in October.
Meta’s New AI Agent Looks Surprisingly Capable
Panelists said Muse reviewed a credit card statement to find forgotten subscriptions, took a user directly to a JetBlue shopping cart to book a flight, and returned doctor phone numbers and links.
A panelist noted this all happened without handing over credit card details or email access, which is a genuine advantage for users. On the recent July 29 earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerburg said privacy and security will be fundamental to the company’s agent strategy and that “consumer personal agents is going to end up being an extremely important and massive market.” CNBC previously reported that Meta delayed Muse for months over security concerns, so the delay helped Meta deliver a more secure product.
A panelist argued Muse is a potential risk for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) because task completion could substitute using Google Search. A user who books a flight inside an assistant skips the results page where Google sells ads.
Meta Is Spending a Fortune on AI
The host said Meta spends roughly $200 billion a year on AI-related initiatives. Capital expenditure, the line that covers data centers and servers, was $72.22 billion for full-year 2025. Management guides 2026 capex to $130-$145 billion, and second-quarter capex was $30.12 billion. Additionally, Meta has spent a little over $70 billion on research & development in the past 12 months, bringing their total expected 2026 spend to over $200 billion.
Q2 free cash flow fell to $784M from $8.55B, and diluted EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.22 estimate.
Meta Soars 30% in a Month
Meta stock has ripped about 12.98% in the past week, and over one month, shares rose 30.56%. Over one year, Meta is up only 0.69%, meaning the Muse rally has sent shareholders roughly back to where they started.
What to Watch Next
Muse gives Meta another credible path to monetize its enormous AI investment, but investors still have little hard data showing what the product is worth.
That makes Meta’s next earnings report especially important. The company is expected to report Q3 results on October 28, with consensus calling for EPS of $6.40 and revenue guidance of $61-$64 billion.
Any disclosure on Muse users, engagement, or revenue would give investors their first real evidence that Meta’s newest AI product can justify the excitement already priced into the stock.
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Thomas Richmond is a financial writer and content strategist with 5+ years of experience covering stocks and financial markets. He has published over 500 articles focused on individual stock analysis, helping investors better understand business fundamentals, stock valuations, and long-term opportunities.
Thomas previously served as a Content Lead at TIKR, a stock research platform, where he helped scale the company’s blog to hundreds of articles per month and contributed to a weekly newsletter reaching more than 100,000 investors.
Outside of work, Thomas enjoys weight lifting and soccer.
