Meta’s stock posts best month in over two years on AI assistant launch

Meta just had the kind of month that makes investors forget about all those billions poured into the metaverse. Shares of the social media giant climbed approximately 25% in September 2026, marking the company’s strongest monthly performance in over two years, driven almost entirely by the launch of its personal AI assistant app called Muse. The rally included a 7% single-day pop. It came from an app that books your dinner reservations and argues with online sellers about price. What Muse actually does Muse launched on September 8 as a free download with paid tiers at $20 and $100 per month. The app is built to handle multistep tasks autonomously. That means it can negotiate online purchases, book reservations, manage your inbox, and connect with third-party services like Gmail and Spotify without requiring constant hand-holding from the user. Within its first week of availability, Muse climbed to the number one spot in the US Apple App Store’s free apps category, outpacing established competitors including ChatGPT. Mark Zuckerberg has framed Muse as part of a larger push toward what he calls “personal superintelligence.” The underlying ambition is straightforward: Meta wants an AI...