Meta reportedly targets early September for Hatch consumer AI agent

Meta Platforms is reportedly planning to launch its Hatch consumer AI agent in late August or early September. Documents reviewed by The Information show an October target for Meta's Watermelon model. Meta has weighed a tiered subscription for Hatch. Premium access could cost up to $199.99 per month. Premium access would include higher usage limits. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has sought to monetize the company's AI investments. Meta has also sought to diversify its revenue. Meta's AI spending has weighed substantially on its cash flow. Meta reported $60.8 billion in second-quarter revenue. Advertising generated $59.4 billion of that revenue. Advertising accounted for more than 97% of total revenue. Reality Labs generated $431 million. Other revenue reached $1.01 billion. Meta raised the floor of its 2026 capital expenditure range to $130 billion from $125 billion. The ceiling remained at $145 billion. Meta's capital expenditures reached $31.08 billion in the quarter. Meta reported $31.86 billion in operating cash flow. Meta reported $784 million in free cash flow. Free cash flow was $8.55 billion a year earlier. Meta shares closed Monday at $559.02. The closing price valued Meta at nearly $1.42 trillion. Meta shares have fallen by more than 15% this year. A youth-safety trial in Oakland has added pressure. Bank of America maintains a Buy rating and an $810 price target. Mizuho compared the case with tobacco litigation from the 1990s. Hatch has been trained to work across DoorDash, Etsy, Reddit, Yelp, and Outlook. Early Hatch prototypes show a customizable dashboard. The dashboard features tools and skills created by AI agents. Meta is preparing a WhatsApp platform for integrating and interacting with third-party AI agents. Meta could begin testing the platform with a limited group of users as soon as this week. Meta released Muse Spark in April. Meta released version 1.1 in July. Meta released version 1.2 with the Muse Code agent in August. It remains unclear whether Watermelon will join the Muse family. Meta is estimated to report third-quarter earnings on October 28. Neither product will have had much time to demonstrate its economics by then.