Meta Unveils Keychain-Sized AI Device Ahead of OpenAI Rival

CLSA's Bhavtosh Vajpayee said the AI semiconductor cycle will not peak in 2028, calling that expectation "utterly wrong" and projecting the current chip shortage will persist until roughly 2030. Speaking to CNBC on Wednesday, Vajpayee said demand for GPUs and custom AI chips currently exceeds supply by about 73%, and he expects upstream semiconductor and hardware companies to benefit as the shortage worsens alongside expanding AI infrastructure spending. He also noted that large semiconductor companies trade at lower valuation multiples than many other parts of the AI ecosystem. Vajpayee highlighted Meta's Muse as a notable recent development for making AI agent creation easier through simple language commands, and said similar advances should emerge in China, where companies including Alibaba are developing smaller AI models. He pointed to Apple as particularly important because smartphones already sit at the center of consumers' daily lives and could become the primary gateway for accessing AI services, while CLSA sees clearer opportunities in AI hardware suppliers than among model developers, where he said it remains too early to determine the eventual winners.

Meta is banking its future on its new Muse AI agent, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled as the centerpiece of the company's vision at the Meta Connect conference on Wednesday. The agent has quickly jumped to the top of both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, and according to Zuckerberg, millions of people are already using it. Chief AI officer Alexandr Wang demonstrated use cases ranging from scheduling meetings to negotiating better cable rates and making purchases across multiple services, and Meta is also bringing Muse to its next-generation Meta VR Glasses and to the Muse Charm, a handheld device that lets users interact with the agent without a smartphone or smart glasses. Meta said it will make money from Muse by taking a small cut on transactions made via the agent, and Zuckerberg said he expects Muse to grow into the personal super intelligence that billions of people around the world will use. The company dedicated part of the keynote to privacy, citing the Muse Secure VM and a forthcoming Muse Confidential VM, though it may take time to earn trust after its $5 billion settlement over the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal in 2019.