Meta's Muse rekindles fears over winners and losers as personal AI agent emerges

Sept 23 (Reuters) - Meta's Muse, the first major consumer product to emerge under Alexandr Wang since he was hired to head its AI efforts last year, has split the fortunes of US stocks this week.

Muse, which allows users to delegate tasks such as shopping, travel booking and form-filling to an AI agent, overtook ChatGPT as the top free app on Apple's App Store and Google Play Store in the US and Canada.

The app recorded 2.8 million downloads within two weeks of its launch, posting an average daily download growth of 55% in the first 10 days, according to market intelligence company Sensor Tower.

Investors worried that Meta's scale could turn Muse into a powerful comparison-shopping tool, enabling consumers to more easily find lower-cost alternatives and weakening the loyalty that often keeps users with incumbent providers.

The development dragged on several sectors this week, while Meta and AI-infrastructure related companies rallied.

"Meta has really found lightning in a bottle here and someone who partners with Muse is likely to be a clear beneficiary off the bat to me. As far as net losers, it's just going to take more time to find out," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.

JITTERS ACROSS SECTORS

Financials stocks were the hardest-hit in the previous session and remained under pressure on Wednesday on fears that the AI agent could prompt users to switch to policies with cheaper prices.

Big banks such as JPMorgan and Wells Fargo lost more than 3% each so far this week, while brokerage Charles Schwab was down nearly 5%. Insurers such as Marsh and Arthur J. Gallagher were down 2.4% and 4.6%, respectively.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist for B. Riley Wealth, however, said those disruption concerns were far-fetched.

"If you're going to trust the management of your finances to something that Muse found for you, then you were likely not a big payer to anyone in that industry to begin with. There's a whole lot more that goes in asset management than who's got the cheapest price," he said.

Booking companies such as TripAdvisor and Booking Holdings, which rely on subscription models, have lost over 6% this week.

Planet Fitness has tanked 17%, while the New York Times is down 10%.

Other decliners included ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft, and online food marketplace DoorDash.

THE BIGGEST WINNERS

Meta's shares have soared nearly 13% this week and are set for their fifth-straight week of advances.

The gains were fueled by expectations that the mainstream consumer-focused app could generate additional annual revenue, with Truist Securities estimating it to touch at least $28.5 billion by fiscal 2030.

US-listed shares of Canada's Shopify have jumped 11.4% this week, after it said it would use Muse to process checkouts. Payments platform PayPal has marginally gained after saying it would allow users to discover products and complete purchases through the AI agent.

Privately held companies, including Stripe and Ticketmaster, also struck similar deals with Meta.

MORE AI INFRASTRUCTURE DEMAND

Apps such as Muse could drive AI compute demand, accelerating AI infrastructure buildout and benefiting chip stocks.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has gained 7% since Muse's launch and is set for its biggest two-week run since mid-August, with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices among top gainers.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)