Muse was downloaded 2.8 million times in the first 12 days after it went online, surpassing ChatGPT and adding $234 billion to Meta’s market value.
Written by: Zhao Ying
Alexandr Wang, chief AI officer of Meta, recently issued an open letter explaining the core philosophy behind his leadership in building the Muse AI assistant - to enable every ordinary person to realize their dreams. This letter appeared in the public eye together with Muse's strong market performance, further solidifying the outside world's judgment on the value of the US$14 billion acquisition deal.
Muse has gained momentum since its launch. According to Sensor Tower data, the app was downloaded 2.8 million times in the first 12 days of its launch on the App Store in the United States and Canada, surpassing ChatGPT’s 1.3 million downloads in the same period, and set a U.S. record of 264,000 downloads in a single day on September 19. Boosted by this, Meta's market value increased by approximately US$234 billion in the past five trading days.
Wang wrote in the open letter that most people never say what they really want - not because there is no desire, but because dreams often die quietly amid cumbersome practical obstacles. He positioned Muse as everyone's "second brain", an "all-round manager" who can understand half a sentence, help people make plans, send emails, find funds, and clear obstacles.
An open letter about "Longing"
In the letter, Wang described the plight of human dreams in an almost literary way: "Every unfulfilled desire is a silent tragedy of human potential." He wrote that the world has long been shaped by a few "enthusiasts who somehow turn desires into reality," and Muse's mission is to enable each of the 8 billion people to truly unlock their own agency.
In his conception, Muse is not a wish-making elf, but a pragmatic executor - "Tell you, this is what you have dreamed of in your life, let's realize it, here's how", and then take action.
The letter was released shortly after the Meta Connect 2026 conference. At that conference, Meta launched Muse Charm, a stand-alone pocket device designed for voice interaction, as well as a series of hardware products such as Meta VR glasses that weigh only 100 grams and sell for $1,299, and the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 smart glasses starting at $249.
From Scale AI to Meta: The rewards of a controversial acquisition
The way Wang joined Meta was dramatic in itself. In 2025, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg acquired the entire staff of the popular AI startup Scale AI for US$14.3 billion. As the founder of Scale AI, Wang reportedly received approximately US$5 billion personally. This transaction was regarded as a sky-high price by some market participants at the time.
Wang is the co-founder of Scale AI, which focuses on providing data annotation services for AI model training. It was once one of the most valuable AI infrastructure companies in Silicon Valley. After Meta completed its acquisition of Scale AI in 2025, Wang became Meta's chief AI officer and led the company's AI product strategy.
Technology investor Adam Khoo wrote on the X platform:
"At the time, people thought Zuckerberg was crazy and spent $5 billion to hire Alexandr Wang. Today, Meta's new AI products developed under Wang have added about $200 billion to the company's market value. Suddenly, spending big money to lock in top talent doesn't look so crazy."
The strategic significance of this acquisition is equally profound. This transaction effectively reversed the outside world's impression of Meta being lagging behind in the field of AI, transforming it from a "chaser" to a "leader."
Camouflage T-shirt and $30 style philosophy
If Muse is Wang’s expression at the product level, then his outfit on the Meta Connect 2026 stage unexpectedly became the output of another personal symbol.
Wang wore a 1990s-style camouflage T-shirt with a deer head pattern on it, paired with camouflage Crocs and black trousers to give a speech. After the press conference, this outfit quickly sparked heated discussions on the X platform, with some users speculating that the T-shirt was an Hermès item worth $800.
Wang immediately came forward to "clarify" that the shirt came from a second-hand store in Santa Cruz and cost him $30, about $60 for Crocs, and $5 for Calvin Klein underwear. He characterized outside speculation about luxury goods as "slander."
According to Business Insider, this is not the first time Wang has appeared in a similar deer/camouflage style - he has worn similar outfits in previous Core Memory interviews and important internal meetings. This "anti-elite" dressing style is highly consistent with his online persona, which he calls himself a "tweet cannon" on the X platform and continues to bombard Muse with emoticons. It is also regarded by some observers as a brand image he deliberately built: to remove the luster of corporate elites and retain the chaotic energy of the founder.