Meta’s Connect 2026 keynote on September 23 served as a critical test for a stock that had already rallied sharply in anticipation. Shares of Meta (NASDAQ: META) gained about 13% over the two sessions leading into the event, trading near $755 following the launch of Muse, Meta’s consumer AI agent, which reached No. 1 among free U.S. App Store apps with roughly 730,000 downloads in its first ten days. Because the keynote took place after the U.S. market close, the market reaction was delayed until Thursday, leaving investors to judge whether Meta’s hardware and AI announcements matched the optimism already priced into the stock.
Mark Zuckerberg used the Menlo Park event to expand Meta’s AI hardware lineup around Muse. The surprise reveal was Meta Charm, a pocket-sized handheld device about the size of an Apple AirPods case. It includes a roughly 2-inch touchscreen, built-in 5G connectivity, voice interaction hardware, a fingerprint sensor, microphones, and reportedly a camera. Meta did not disclose pricing, but said Charm would ship during the December holiday period. Zuckerberg described it as fitting the entire Muse experience into a keychain-sized device that is always available to talk to.
Meta also introduced Ray-Ban Meta Audio, its first audio-only smart glasses. Priced at $349 with preorders open during Connect and shipments starting October 13, the camera-free model weighs 43 grams and offers up to 12 hours of battery life. The design removes the camera while keeping open-ear audio, microphones, and Meta AI access, addressing privacy concerns around being filmed in public without consent. The glasses are initially offered in 23 color and lens combinations across Clubmaster and Burbank styles.
The new Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 camera-equipped glasses start at $449 and increase battery life to nine hours. They add a six-microphone array that Meta says reduces background noise by more than 90%, retain a 12-megapixel camera capable of 3K Ultra HD video, and will support Dolby Atmos and 360-degree spatial sound for videos later this year. Meta also detailed Meta VR Glasses, a lightweight virtual reality device weighing about 100 grams that relies on a separate computing puck. Priced at $1,299 and planned for spring 2027, the device is the first IMAX Enhanced-certified VR product and supports 3D movies, immersive live sports through ESPN and TNT Sports partnerships, and multi-screen virtual workspaces.
Muse serves as the software layer across these devices. Meta said it can now interact with a broad retail and service catalog, including Walmart, Best Buy, American Eagle Outfitters, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Fanatics, Gap, Michael Kors, Sephora, Ulta, Wayfair, Shopify, Expedia, and Instacart. The company framed the announcements as a step toward making personal AI available without requiring a smartphone, while Zuckerberg stated that nobody, including Meta can have access to your data. Still, with Meta guiding 2026 capital spending between $125 billion and $145 billion and Reality Labs losing billions quarterly, the market’s main question remains when this hardware ecosystem begins converting AI adoption into disclosed revenue.
