Meta Agrees to Buy Manus to Boost Advanced AI

Meta Platforms has agreed to acquire Manus, a fast-growing Singapore-based artificial intelligence agent startup with Chinese roots, as the US tech giant seeks to build commercial services on top of its massive AI investments.

The deal values Manus at more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the transaction, marking a rare US takeover of an Asian tech company and the latest multibillion-dollar AI bet by Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. 

The agreement was reached in around 10 days, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the details are not public.

Meta said it plans to keep operating and selling the Manus service while integrating the technology into its own products. 

Manus, backed by major Chinese investors including Tencent Holdings, ZhenFund and Hony Capital (HSG), rose to prominence earlier this year shortly after the launch of DeepSeek. All existing Manus investors have been bought out as part of the acquisition, one person said.

“There will be no continuing Chinese ownership interests in Manus AI following the transaction, and Manus AI will discontinue its services and operations in China,” a Meta spokesperson said. Manus’ parent, Butterfly Effect Pte, was founded in China before relocating to Singapore.

Zuckerberg has made AI Meta’s top strategic priority, committing billions of dollars to hire researchers, build data centres and develop new models. Manus had an annual revenue run-rate of about $125 million earlier this year from subscription sales of its AI agent to businesses, offering Meta a potential near-term financial return on some of its AI spending.

Manus’ AI agent can carry out a range of general digital tasks — including screening CVs, planning travel itineraries and analysing stocks — in response to simple instructions. Butterfly Effect raised funds earlier this year at a valuation close to $500 million in a round led by US venture capital firm Benchmark.

Analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence said the purchase is likely aimed at expanding Meta’s AI agent task capabilities, noting that Meta currently lacks a broad ecosystem of applications built on its own foundation models, unlike rivals OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. They also warned the deal could attract regulatory scrutiny because Manus, though based in Singapore, was founded in China.

AI agents are designed to perform specific tasks without continuous human supervision. Enterprise software firms such as Salesforce and ServiceNow have promoted agents as a more effective way for businesses to use AI than chatbots, which depend on ongoing user prompts.

Meta already offers its Meta AI chatbot across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as through its AI-enabled glasses. It is acquiring both the technology and leadership team from Manus, though it has not said where the group will sit within Meta’s structure. The Wall Street Journal reported that Manus co-founder and CEO Xiao Hong will report to Meta Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan.

Alexandr Wang, Meta’s Chief AI Officer, welcomed Manus’s roughly 100-strong team in a post on X. In his own post, Xiao said the deal would help extend the reach of Manus’ agents, declaring that “the era of AI that doesn’t just talk, but acts, creates, and delivers, is only beginning,” and that they would now be able to build at a scale previously unimaginable.

Meta’s heavy AI spending mirrors that of rivals OpenAI, Google-parent Alphabet and Microsoft. The company has promised vast infrastructure investments in the United States over the next three years, many of them expected to be AI-related, and is developing a new flagship AI model for release next spring — efforts that have prompted some investor concern over when such outlays will translate into meaningful revenue.

Benchmark came under criticism earlier this year from US lawmakers and other investors for backing an AI company with links to China. Senator John Cornyn of Texas wrote on X in May that it was wrong for American investors to “subsidize our biggest adversary in AI” in ways that could later benefit the Chinese state. Benchmark did not immediately comment on the Meta–Manus deal.

Asked about the acquisition at a regular press briefing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson referred questions to “relevant regulatory authorities” without further comment.

Source: Bloomberg