Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is giving Wall Street a new reason to reassess its AI strategy as Muse gains users and opens potential revenue opportunities across subscriptions, advertising, commerce, and small-business services.
Jefferies Sees Multiple Revenue Paths
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill told CNBC on Thursday that Muse is showing encouraging early adoption across shopping, travel, planning, and other everyday tasks.
Thill sees potential revenue from subscriptions, advertising, and commerce. He also highlighted Meta’s roughly 200 million small businesses as an opportunity to offer AI agents that help companies manage their operations.
He believes Meta still needs to prove that these new revenue streams can generate sustainable returns and fully justify its large AI investments.
Thill said broader Muse adoption could also drive significantly higher compute demand.
Evercore Expects Rapid Muse Adoption
Evercore’s Mark Mahaney told CNBC on Wednesday that he expects Muse could reach 100 million users within six to 12 months.
Mahaney believes consumer-facing companies will need to build their own AI agents or partner with services such as Muse as users demand simpler, more personalized online experiences.
However, he remains skeptical that Muse will capture all the economic value from commerce conducted through AI agents.
Dan Ives Says Meta AI Spending Is Starting To Pay Off
Yorkville Ives’ Dan Ives told CNBC on Tuesday that investors previously discounted Meta’s massive AI spending because they could not see clear results.
He believes Muse changes that narrative by giving Meta a consumer-facing product that can tap its roughly 3.5 billion users.
Ives also sees Meta’s user data and distribution network strengthening its position as AI value increasingly shifts toward data and real-world applications.
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Goldman Sachs Sees Muse Supporting A Higher Valuation
Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Brook Dane told CNBC on Wednesday that Muse provides the first clear example of Meta creating a new growth opportunity from its AI investments.
Dane believes Meta’s history of monetizing user growth could allow it to generate revenue from Muse over time.
He said Muse’s early success is already helping investors reassess Meta’s valuation, although Meta must still contend with competing products from Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google, and other AI companies.
Dane also said Muse could drive significant infrastructure demand. He estimated that 100 million Muse users could require about 1.6 to 1.7 gigawatts of compute capacity. He said each gigawatt could require roughly $50 billion in capital spending.
The spending could create opportunities across the AI supply chain, including chips, memory and networking infrastructure.
Dane said the optical networking segment could be particularly well positioned as data centers shift toward co-packaged and near-packaged optics.
He highlighted Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) as one company that could benefit, saying its revenue could grow faster than the market expects over the next two years as AI infrastructure requires more optical components.
Top ETF Exposure To Meta Platforms
- Invesco AI and Next Gen Software ETF (NYSE:IGPT): 8.43% Weight
- Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF (NYSE:LSGR): 8.12% Weight
- Invesco Nasdaq Internet ETF (NASDAQ:PNQI): 7.89% Weight
Significance: Because META carries such a heavy weight in these funds, significant inflows or outflows will likely force automatic buying or selling of the stock.
Meta Price Action
META Stock Price Activity: Meta Platforms shares were down 2.60% at $724.77 during premarket trading on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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