Last night, Meta surged 11%. What other AR/VR new products are worth looking forward to at this week's Meta Connect?
Last night, US chip stocks and Meta strengthened in tandem. Meta shares jumped more than 6% at the open, climbed steadily through the session, and closed up 11.43%, hitting a new high since early February this year. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged over 3%, ARM soared 13%, and chip giants such as Intel and AMD also rallied, with AMD's market capitalization exceeding $1 trillion for the first time. This round of strong movement in the capital markets stems more from the explosive performance of Meta's latest AI assistant Muse, as well as the market's high expectations for the upcoming Meta Connect conference.
1. Multiple Wall Street Institutions Raise Meta's Price Target: How Does Muse Change the Form of Social Products?
Muse quickly completed its multi-platform matrix layout and topped the US charts, prompting multiple Wall Street institutions to adjust their price targets and watchlists for Meta. Muse launched simultaneously on mobile, web, and social platforms in early September, then completed its Mac version, and last Friday overtook the long-dominant ChatGPT to top the US App Store free chart. On the same day, Wells Fargo raised its Meta price target to $796, while Citi added it to its 90-day catalyst watchlist.
How does Muse differ from rival model platforms like ChatGPT and Claude? Meta's main differentiation lies in directly embedding Muse into social content on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. This means hundreds of millions of users can use Muse directly within their existing chat and social media apps. Moreover, Muse also fully covers the web and Meta's AI glasses—you can start a task on one device, and even if you exit the interface, it can quietly finish the job in the background. Another differentiator is its "memory" capability: from day one, Muse naturally inherits your social data, clearly knowing what you've saved, who you follow, or what you've searched for on Marketplace. The officially promoted use case is "automatically organizing your saved recipes into a shopping list," but the core logic behind it is that it can use this social data to map out users' daily rhythms, personal interests, and to-do items.
According to official introductions, beyond social platforms, Muse further integrates with Gmail, Apple Calendar, and Google Calendar, and can help draft and send emails, book restaurants, book flights and hotels, track product prices, and even scan your email receipts to help you catch forgotten subscription charges you never cancelled. It can even negotiate car prices and bargain down bills on your behalf in the background, and finally pay directly through Stripe's Link wallet.
How does Muse differ from Meta's own previous-generation AI products? In terms of product positioning, Muse marks Meta's transition from a traditional chatbot to a personalized agent capable of autonomously executing complex tasks. Unlike last year's older Meta AI, which focused on image and short video generation, Muse is positioned as a digital agent that can "get things done" for users. It can seamlessly connect with Gmail, calendars, and third-party dining and travel services, and even autonomously complete complex web operations such as sending emails, ordering food, and filling out forms through a browser. In terms of business model, while offering a free basic version, Muse has launched two subscription tiers at $20 and $100 per month to meet different intensity needs.
2. Meta Is Deeply Bound with AMD, ARM and Others, Complementing Its In-House Chips
The large-scale application of AI agents like Muse is changing the demand structure for data center CPUs. Agents need to handle complex processes such as planning, web browsing, tool calling, and state maintenance—a whole set of steps that is extremely CPU-intensive rather than relying solely on GPUs. Industry data shows that under the same data center power, agent workloads require about 4 times as many CPU cores as traditional AI systems. Muse topping the App Store is seen by some market participants as a signal of AI scaling "from demo to daily use," and has triggered a reassessment of CPU demand forecasts.
AMD—officially announced an expanded strategic partnership on February 24 this year, providing multi-year order support for its computing expansion. The expanded strategic partnership announced by Meta and AMD involves GPU deployments at gigawatt scale, and this multi-year agreement is reportedly expected to total hundreds of billions of RMB (please verify the original reporting currency), making it Meta's largest computing procurement commitment outside of Nvidia. The market therefore expects that if Muse's user scale continues to climb, AMD's order visibility may improve, but this actually depends on the progress of the agreement's execution.
ARM—on March 24 this year, Meta deepened cooperation with ARM to develop dedicated CPUs, jointly advancing the hardware ecosystem and in-house chip development. The "ARM AGI CPU" jointly developed by both parties is ARM's first data center processor designed specifically for the AI era, aiming to work alongside Meta's in-house MTIA chip to support gigawatt-level AI deployment. Because ARM adopts a model of charging licensing fees based on shipment volume, the market has therefore raised its expectations for ARM's licensing revenue. At the same time, Meta is also advancing its in-house AI accelerator chip MTIA using the RISC-V architecture, with Broadcom as its system integration partner. Together, these form a four-way computing landscape of "Nvidia GPUs, AMD GPUs, jointly developed CPUs, and in-house MTIA," each complementing the others.
3. Five Key Highlights of Meta Connect: VR Headsets, AI Glasses, Display Glasses, OS, and Black Tech Demos
The upcoming Meta Connect conference will be a key moment to test whether Meta's "AI + hardware" story can deliver. The keynote will be delivered personally by Zuckerberg, fully focused on cutting-edge breakthroughs in AI technology, smart glasses, and VR hardware. This is not only an important ecosystem showcase following Muse's breakout, but will also bring new technical directions to developer breakout sessions.
New VR/MR hardware—codenamed Phoenix, a split-type lightweight headset: This is the most anticipated hardware of the conference, with a form closer to a pair of goggles than a traditional headset. The body is extremely thin, connecting via a cable to a pocket-sized computing box, shifting most of the weight off the head. Industry forecasts suggest the total weight will be around 100 grams, relying mainly on eye tracking and hand tracking rather than controllers, and its positioning is not primarily gaming but rather large-screen entertainment and video content. It should be noted that multiple sources indicate the actual release time of Phoenix has been postponed to the first half of 2027, and September 23 is more likely to be a form factor launch or preview rather than a retail release.
AI glasses—codenamed Luna, smart glasses with the camera removed: According to reports, Meta will launch smart glasses without a camera, instead using more microphones to interact with Meta AI. There may be two versions, planned for release this autumn. Removing the camera has two considerations: first, the frame can be made thinner and more like ordinary glasses; second, it responds to persistent privacy concerns about "spy glasses."
Display glasses—second-generation Meta Ray-Ban Display: Both eyes are expected to be upgraded to full-color display, and Meta may further open up its app ecosystem and usage scenarios, attempting to turn the Display series from an accessory product into a true platform—Meta has already opened its Wearables Device Access Toolkit to developers, allowing access to the AI glasses' camera, audio, and display capabilities.
OS and AI—new-generation VR/MR operating system: Because Phoenix eliminates controllers, "look with your eyes, pinch with your fingers" must shift from an interaction option to the underlying logic of the system. Therefore, the new-generation operating system is expected to integrate eye tracking and hand tracking more deeply into the system layer, and AI agent Muse may also be written into the system as part of its capabilities.
The biggest easter egg—holographic calls aimed at Apple's Personas: According to reports, Meta may demonstrate a set of "hologram-like video calls" based on an advanced version of Codec Avatars around Phoenix. Meta has been investing in this photorealistic digital human technology since 2015. If realized this time, it will be the first time Meta stands on the same level as Apple's Personas in terms of virtual avatars.
4. What Are the Supply Chains for Meta's AI Glasses and Headset Hardware?
Qualcomm (QCOM), as a core chip supplier, occupies a central position in Meta's smart hardware industry chain. Whether for new-generation headsets or smart glasses, the core SOC chips are supplied by Qualcomm, and the main processor accounts for an extremely high proportion of the overall BOM cost. Qualcomm not only possesses dedicated chip design capabilities and ecosystem adaptation experience, but is also actively rolling out high-density optical interconnect technology to extend into AI infrastructure, which the market views as one of the factors supporting its valuation.
Key component manufacturers such as NXP (NXPI) and Sony (SONY) respectively provide core support for power management and optical sensing in hardware devices. NXP, as an MCU supplier, handles always-on tasks such as sensor data collection and low-power wake-up, and has an important impact on device battery life. Sony, as the leading image sensor company, continues to provide key sensor support for headsets and display glasses. Together, the above manufacturers constitute the main supply chain for Meta's smart hardware.
Disclaimer | This article is based on publicly available market information, industry rumors, and news reports. It involves a large amount of predictive content, and the statistical calibers and time ranges for individual stock and index price changes may not be fully consistent. Actual released content, supply arrangements, and stock price performance all involve significant uncertainty and should be subject to official announcements and actual market movements. It should be particularly noted that last night's broad rally in US stocks was not driven by a single factor: in addition to Meta and the AI narrative, easing tensions in the Middle East also constituted an important macroeconomic positive, and combined with crude oil prices falling below $100, the market removed part of the geopolitical risk premium, thereby repairing overall risk appetite. Therefore, the gains in individual stocks mentioned in this article should not be entirely attributed to changes in the fundamentals of Meta or the AI industry chain itself. This article does not constitute investment advice, and the individual stocks mentioned do not represent any buy or sell recommendation. Markets carry risks, and decisions should be made cautiously.
