I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood labeled Amazon's exclusion of Meta's Muse AI agent as a 'great test' for customer loyalty. Amazon blocked access, citing lack of permission and security concerns, while protecting its $70B ad business. Conversely, Amazon integrated Anthropic's Claude. ARK recently trimmed its Amazon stake but projects AWS could become a trillion-dollar business. Meanwhile, numerous retailers have joined Muse.
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood agreed with analyst Nick Grous that Amazon.com, Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:AMZN) holdout from Meta Platforms Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:META) Muse sets up “a great test” of customer loyalty and the promise of agentic commerce.
“Indeed,” Wood said in a post on X.
Protecting a $70 Billion Business
On ARK’s podcast, released Saturday, Grous said Amazon is blocking Muse to protect its advertising business, which is “extremely profitable” at $70 billion.
In Q2 of 2026, the company’s ad business generated $19.8 billion in revenue, up 26% year over year.
“If it’s agents that are crawling your site, then the ads are meaningless,” he said, adding that Amazon wants to “own the customer relationship” rather than let agents crawl its site freely.
He contrasted that with Shopify, which opened up Shop Pay integration in Muse and let it index its shop catalog.
Retailers including American Eagle, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Gap, Fanatics, Michael Kors, Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, and Wayfair have all signed up to let Muse operate on their platforms.
Grous added that Amazon will be under pressure to follow or explain to shareholders why it still hasn’t.
Indeed! $AMZN $META https://t.co/omPmHX9f09
— Cathie Wood (@CathieDWood) September 26, 2026
Amazon Goes to Claude Instead
Earlier this month, Amazon said it blocked Muse because Meta never got permission for the agent to access its site and the agent didn’t identify itself while browsing, raising concerns over customer credentials.
Days later, Amazon opened its seller platform to Anthropic‘s Claude, a company in which it has invested $13 billion, with up to $20 billion more tied to milestones.
ARK Trimmed Amazon Stake Earlier This Month
ARK’s fund sold 20,000 Amazon shares earlier this month, worth about $5.1 million, even as the firm separately projects Amazon Web Services could become a “trillion-dollar-per-year” business.
ARK has been rotating into Meta instead as Muse continues to reshape online shopping.
Price Action: On Friday, Amazon closed 0.12% higher at $249.67 and climbed 0.12% in extended trading, according to Benzinga Pro.
Benzinga edge rankings indicate Amazon’s stock has a Momentum score in the 75th percentile and a Growth score in the 93rd percentile.