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During Meta's Q3 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said more than 10 million engaged users of Meta's Muse AI agent exist, with over 25% using it for shopping at an average purchase of over $200. He said payments partner Plaid reported unprecedented transaction activity, prompting Meta to work with Stripe to raise credit limits to handle demand.
Mark Zuckerberg reportedly considered relocating out of California after a proposed wealth tax targeting billionaires raised concerns within Meta. The levy could have required him to sell a significant portion of his Meta shares, which he worried would threaten his controlling voting stake in the company.
Meta confirmed during its third-quarter earnings call that it will create a new class of non-voting capital stock, distributed to all existing shareholders as a stock dividend. CFO Susan Li said the shares are meant to support capital raising, employee compensation, acquisitions and other corporate needs while preserving the voting power of current Class A and B shareholders. The announcement came alongside strong quarterly results, with revenue up 26% year-over-year to $64 billion, though expenses rose 68%.
A Meta regulatory filing reveals Mark Zuckerberg agreed to remain a California resident for eight years, even though a ballot measure could impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires' assets starting January 2026. Zuckerberg had considered moving, listing his Palo Alto home for sale and buying property in Florida, before Meta's special board committee negotiated the residency commitment tied to his ability to sell a new class of non-voting shares.
During Meta's Q3 earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said more than 10 million people have used Muse since its early September launch in the US and Canada. He said Meta is moving into a scaling phase for the agent and plans to build commerce tools to charge businesses transaction fees, noting shopping purchases through Muse average about $200 each.
Meta is reportedly pursuing creative financing arrangements to support its large-scale AI investments, according to a roundup also noting that a Starlink slowdown impaired Ukraine's defense against Russian attacks, and that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff called Vladimir Putin a 'humanitarian.'
Meta confirmed on its Q3 earnings call that Muse, its AI app, has topped 10 million users, matching an earlier estimate from Sensor Tower. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said about a quarter of users open Muse daily, and more than a quarter of engaged shoppers using the agent spend over $200 on average per purchase, a figure he said surprised payments partner Plaid.
Anthropic unveiled Claude Duet, a personal AI agent that monitors connected apps, sends daily briefings, and completes tasks like scheduling or building dashboards while running in the background on its own virtual machine. The tool runs on Anthropic's Opus 5.5 model and has dedicated Android and iOS apps, currently available only to US Claude subscribers via a waitlist. Anthropic says the agent checks accounts every few hours rather than continuously to conserve usage limits.
Meta reported record third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion and announced plans for a stock split alongside the creation of a new class of shares intended to help finance its artificial intelligence investments. The company said the new share class will not alter Mark Zuckerberg's existing voting control.
A judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties after a Santa Fe jury found the company violated the state's Unfair Practices Act with misleading statements about user privacy, data handling and content moderation. The jury had identified 43 million violations, which could have totaled roughly $219 billion at maximum penalty rates, but Judge Francis Mathew set the final figure at $25 billion, below the state's $35-40 billion request and above Meta's proposed $3.45 billion cap. Meta says it will appeal, and the funds, which accrue 15 percent annual interest until paid, are earmarked for New Mexico's school system.
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found the company committed 43 million violations of the state's consumer protection laws, each carrying a $5,000 penalty. The case centered on Meta's handling of the third-party app tied to the Cambridge Analytica data breach, along with its broader data privacy practices and misinformation policies. Meta says it will appeal the ruling.
Anthropic has released Claude Duet, a research preview of an always-on AI agent available to US-based Pro and Max subscribers via a gradual waitlist rollout. The assistant can connect to apps like Stripe, manage emails and calendars, continue working in the background after the app is closed, and asks for confirmation before taking actions like sending messages or payments. It runs on usage limits shared with regular Claude chat, with background work counting toward those limits.