Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune jumped by about $25 billion on Monday after Meta shares rose over 11%.
This was driven by strong early demand for the company’s new AI agent, Muse, pushing Zuckerberg’s estimated wealth to $253.6 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time figures.
He ranked sixth among the world’s richest people, about $14.5 billion behind Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
Meta shares closed at $741.25 after gaining about 11.4% during the session, adding $192 billion to Meta’s market value. This made it one of the biggest drivers of Monday’s technology stock rally.
The surge followed new data showing that Muse is attracting users quickly. Meta released the personal AI agent on September 8, and it reached No. 1 on Apple’s US free iPhone chart ten days later.
Sensor Tower estimated that Muse had recorded more than 730,000 US downloads by September 18, covering its first ten days, and slightly exceeds the roughly 697,000 US downloads recorded by ChatGPT during its first eight days on the App Store in 2023.
By September 21, Apptopia data showed that Muse had attracted more mobile downloads in its first 12 days than ChatGPT did during the same period in the US and Canada. Muse also had more daily active users at that stage.
That early uptake aligns with Meta charging for heavier use. Muse has a free tier, while paid plans cost $20 and $100 per month. The paid options give users more capacity to hand tasks to the agent.
Muse does more than answer questions. Users can ask it to send emails, book travel, fill forms and handle tasks across connected services. Meta designed it to operate through a dedicated virtual machine with its own browser.
The company says users control which services Muse can access and also requires confirmation before sensitive actions, including sending an email or making a purchase. Meta says Muse does not send users’ conversations or virtual-machine data to its advertising systems.
Meta sees the product as offering a new way to charge consumers directly for AI services. The company has built most of its business around advertising, making Muse’s paid plans a different source of revenue.
Investors received another signal on Monday when Wells Fargo raised its Meta price target to $796 from $640. The bank kept its overweight rating and pointed to Muse usage as a key measure for the company’s AI plans.
Meta will have another chance to show what it plans to do with Muse this week. Its Meta Connect event is scheduled for September 23 and 24, with AI and wearable devices expected to feature prominently. Meta has already said Muse will come to its AI glasses.
The company is also expanding the infrastructure behind its AI drive. On September 21, Meta announced Petal, a 7,000-kilometre subsea cable linking the United States and France.
Petal is designed to carry 1 petabit per second, twice the capacity of today’s most advanced transatlantic cables. Meta expects the system to enter service in 2029.
Zuckerberg’s estimated wealth increased by $25 billion in one trading session, after investors pushed Meta shares higher on the strength of its latest AI product.
