Commercial statement: Meta shares had an exceptionally strong month in September, rising 27%, their best monthly performance since 2022. The growth was driven primarily by investor enthusiasm for AI news, but also by the easing of one of the company's long-standing legal risks.
Meta is betting on a new AI assistant
One of the main drivers for the stock was the debut of the new AI personal assistant Muse. According to available data, it surpassed the five million download mark in less than a month, outpacing competing tools such as ChatGPT, Grok or Claude.
Muse has the ambition to be more than just chatbot. It can solve practical tasks for users, such as booking flights, filling out forms or sending emails. Meta wants to gradually move artificial intelligence from a conversational tool to a personal assistant that can independently perform specific tasks.
Source: XTB
Further support came at the company's annual Connect conference, where Mark Zuckerberg identified Muse as a key element of the company's future product and business strategy. Meta also unveiled the Muse Charm, a new hardware accessory planned for December. It is intended to allow communication with the AI without having to unlock the phone or open a specific app. However, the company has not yet released more detailed specifications for the device.
The retreat of legal risk helped sentiment
Moreover, the positive mood around Meta was already created in the second half of August, when the company reached a historic out-of-court settlement of approximately $16,7 billion with US states that sued it over the operation of its social platforms and their impact on minors.
Meta denied the allegations, calling the demands unreasonable, but it also committed to technological and legislative measures aimed at greater protection for minors.
Pro Investors were primarily interested in the structure of the entire agreement. The amount will not be paid in one go, but gradually over ten years. In addition, full payment is subject to the condition that competing platforms, such as YouTube or TikTok, also take similar measures. The market thus perceived the agreement as removing some of the long-term legal uncertainty surrounding the company.
The strong September growth follows a significant recovery from the summer miniSince mid-August, when Meta shares fell to around $540, their price has risen by about 33%. Since the beginning of the year, the shares are still showing growth of more than 11%.
Meta enters the final part of the year with significantly better sentiment, with investors now primarily watching to see whether the company can translate its rapid adoption of AI products into longer-term revenue and profit growth.
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