Top Stories This Morning: Meta Has Increased Its AI Spending; Anthropic Has Unveiled a Competitor to Muse

Meta raised its capital expenditure forecast for 2026 to $135–145 billion amid a 26% increase in quarterly revenue and the success of its AI agent Muse, which has been used by more than 10 million people in six weeks. Anthropic has unveiled Claude Duet, an AI agent capable of performing work tasks, preparing reports, and generating financial forecasts—a competitor to OpenAI’s Dots and Meta’s Muse. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of October 22.

Oil prices rose amid new attacks on Saudi Arabia, which heightened fears of supply disruptions from the Middle East, according to Bloomberg. Brent rose to over $110 per barrel, while WTI traded around $98. Drone strikes on a Saudi Aramco oil field and the Dammam airport killed three people. Production at the oil field was not affected.

Since the beginning of the year, Brent crude has risen in price by more than 80% due to the war between the U.S. and Iran. Although oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz have nearly returned to pre-war levels, supplies of petroleum products remain limited.

Meta has raised its capital expenditure forecast for 2026 to $135–145 billion amid the success of its AI initiatives, according to Bloomberg. The company’s third-quarter revenue rose 26% to $64.6 billion, exceeding analysts’ forecast of $63.3 billion. Earnings per share came in at $3.83, compared with the expected $3.57. Meta’s stock rose in after-hours trading.

Mark Zuckerberg stated that investments in AI have begun to pay off: in the first six weeks, more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada used the personal AI agent Muse. The company also announced the issuance of a new class of non-voting shares, which can be used to raise capital, fund acquisitions, and provide employee compensation. Meta expects to generate revenue of $73–76 billion in the fourth quarter.

Anthropic has unveiled a preview version of its AI agent, Claude Duet, which will compete with OpenAI Dots and Meta Muse, according to CNBC. The service is geared toward small businesses and professionals: it can prepare daily summaries, track information in connected apps, create dashboards and financial forecasts, and schedule meetings. The agent can perform tasks independently in the background but requests permission before taking any action on the user’s behalf.

Anthropic has opened a waitlist for Claude Duet; a preview version is available to Pro and Max subscribers. The company warns that the agent may still make mistakes when prioritizing tasks.

Two critical vulnerabilities, collectively known as PHP2Shell, have been discovered in the popular PHP programming language, which powers millions of websites and web applications, according to CNBC. These vulnerabilities allow hackers to remotely execute malicious code on servers and gain access to confidential data. The U.S. National Security Agency, the FBI, and regulators in several countries have urged organizations to install security updates immediately. Amazon reported that it had detected attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities even before they were publicly disclosed.

Google, OpenAI, and Amazon were involved in identifying and addressing the threats. Google used its Gemini AI models, while OpenAI coordinated the efforts of researchers and developers over a two-month period to prepare fixes. The company described the discovered vulnerabilities as some of the most serious in recent times. PHP developers have already released security updates, and Cloudflare has implemented additional website protections.

China's key stock index, the CSI 300—which includes the 300 largest companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen—has fallen 20% from its June high, entering a "bear market," according to CNBC. The index has been falling for the tenth consecutive week, losing 2.6% since the start of this week. Pressure on stocks is coming from an economic slowdown, a real estate crisis, weak consumer demand, and declining corporate profits due to fierce competition.

Analysts also point to geopolitical uncertainty and concerns about a bubble in the artificial intelligence market. Retail investors, who account for about 90% of trading in China, are contributing to additional volatility. However, experts consider the sell-off to be excessive and anticipate a market recovery in 2027, driven by steady exports and the development of Chinese AI technologies.

— Japan's broad-based Topix index fell 0.9%, while the Nikkei 225 fell 2.4%.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 3%, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index fell 2%.

— In South Korea, the KOSPI index fell 3.8%, and the KOSDAQ index fell 3.5%.

— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.4%.

— Nasdaq 100 futures were down 1.4%, S&P 500 futures were down 0.8%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.4%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor