Closing Time: Muse splits Wall Street into winners and losers

Meta's consumer agent kept rearranging the market today: Reuters tallied the winners and losers as Muse topped the app charts, Senate Majority Leader Thune said Trump is not really dug in against AI guardrails, Microsoft pledged $10 billion-plus to the Gulf, and the FT documented the mental toll on AI staff. Here is the tape.

Wall Street splits into Muse winners and losers

Meta's Muse has overtaken ChatGPT as the top free app in the US and Canada, logging 2.8 million downloads in its first two weeks, and the market is repricing who benefits. Meta shares are up nearly 13% this week with Shopify and PayPal striking checkout deals, while banks, insurers, booking sites, and subscription businesses get hit: JPMorgan and Wells Fargo have each lost more than 3%, Schwab nearly 5%, and Planet Fitness has tanked 17%. Some strategists call the disruption fears overdone; others say partner-with-Muse is the only safe bet.

Read the full story at Reuters →

Thune: Trump is “not really dug in” against AI guardrails

In an exclusive interview, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Axios he believes President Trump is willing to listen on AI guardrails despite his public attacks on regulation, reading the pushback as directed at “paranoia and noise” rather than policy. Thune said the threats are real, revealed that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called him to discuss safety ahead of his latest public alarm, and pointed to his bill with Sen. Amy Klobuchar that would require frontier-model risk reporting. Democrats still want mandated pre-deployment testing and Commerce Department rulemaking authority before they sign on.

Read the full story at Axios →

Microsoft commits $10 billion-plus to the Gulf’s AI buildout

Microsoft plans to invest more than $10 billion across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait by 2030, including cloud and AI infrastructure, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters. The company is framing the spending around digital resilience as the Iran war drags on, after attacks hit AWS data centers in Bahrain and the UAE. Microsoft is also adding more than $400 million for Middle East connectivity and deepening work with national AI champions including G42, Humain, and Qai.

Read the full story at Reuters →

AI staff describe a mental toll from what they build

The FT reports that employees across AI companies are complaining of mounting psychological strain tied to fears their work could threaten society, adding a workforce dimension to this month’s safety debate between lab leaders and Washington. The piece lands as polls show large majorities of Americans think AI firms are not doing enough to prevent disaster. Inside the labs, the pacing fight is starting to look like an employee-relations problem too.

Read the full story at FT →

Ema raises $77M to replace enterprise software with “AI employees”

Ema, the startup from former Google and Coinbase executive Surojit Chatterjee that deploys teams of AI agents across HR, IT, and finance workflows, raised a $77 million Series B led by Creaegis with Accel, Section 32, and Prosus following on. The company says it has more than 50 active enterprise deals, over 1 million active users, roughly 180% net dollar retention, and customers including Google, Microsoft, ADP, and PwC. Chatterjee argues AI is starting to eat the budget lines once reserved for SaaS seats and IT services, with pricing tied to completed tasks rather than seats or tokens.

Read the full story at TechCrunch →

Meta to show camera-less smart glasses as privacy backlash grows

Ahead of Zuckerberg’s Meta Connect keynote tonight, Reuters reports the company is expected to unveil new smart glasses including a pair without cameras, in two styles, as privacy concerns mount around AI wearables that can record people without consent. The move lands while Muse rides a wave of consumer goodwill, and analysts doubt dropping the camera will quiet the critics. The question for tonight: whether Meta can sell restraint as a feature.

Read the full story at Reuters →

Today’s tape — biggest AI/tech winners and losers from Wednesday’s cash session among the names we track:

Historic market snapshot — September 23, 2026 (day % change as of that edition; not live)

Biggest winners

Biggest losers

Prices are as of Wednesday’s close, September 23, 2026. Market data is a snapshot, not live.