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Meta Makes Multi-Billion Dollar Move, Acquires AI Powerhouse Manus
In a significant strategic play, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has announced its agreement to acquire Manus, a rapidly expanding artificial intelligence startup with Chinese origins now based in Singapore, in a deal reportedly valued at over $2 billion. This acquisition highlights two major trends currently shaping the tech landscape: the substantial financial investments Silicon Valley giants are pouring into AI development, and the increasing geopolitical considerations surrounding companies with roots in China.
For those unfamiliar, Manus specializes in building sophisticated AI “agents” capable of performing complex digital tasks for both individual consumers and businesses. The core idea behind this acquisition is to seamlessly integrate Manus’s advanced technology into Meta’s existing product suite, particularly enhancing the Meta AI assistant that powers platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This transaction marks one of the first major instances of a leading U.S. tech player acquiring a startup originally founded in China, positioning it as a crucial test case for future cross-border deals, especially within the sensitive AI sector.
Manus, launched just three years ago in 2022, originated as a project from Butterfly Effect (also known as Monica.im), a startup that relocated its headquarters from Beijing to Singapore earlier this year as part of its global expansion strategy. Notably, Manus’s AI agent possesses the ability to screen résumés, meticulously plan trips, analyze stock portfolios, and manage other multi-step assignments with minimal human intervention, effectively functioning more as a virtual colleague than a simple chatbot.
The startup has experienced explosive growth in its relatively short lifespan. Just over a week ago, Manus released a blog post touting $100 million in annualized recurring revenue and achieving a $125 million run rate, largely driven by subscriptions and a dedicated user base. The company also reported that Microsoft tested Manus on Windows 11 PCs this year, utilizing its capabilities to assist users in building websites and other content from their local files.
Meta’s Broader AI Vision
For Meta, the Manus acquisition represents the latest in a series of multi-billion dollar gambles designed to transform substantial infrastructure spending on AI chips and data centers into commercially viable products. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly emphasized AI as the company’s paramount priority. Meta continues to heavily invest in its Llama family of open-source language models and made a significant strategic investment in Scale AI earlier this year, even bringing on the startup’s 28-year-old billionaire founder, Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta’s broader AI initiatives.
Crucially, the acquisition also addresses Manus’s ownership ties to China. While the startup had received backing from Chinese investors, including Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG (formerly Sequoia China), a Meta spokesperson confirmed to Nikkei Asia that “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 did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment on the matter.
This proactive move to disentangle Manus from its Chinese connections is widely seen as an effort by Meta to mitigate potential scrutiny and opposition from U.S. politicians and regulators. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, for instance, previously criticized U.S.
VC firm Benchmark Capital in May for participating in a $75 million funding round for Manus, questioning on X, “Who thinks it is a good idea for American investors to subsidize our biggest adversary in AI, only to have the CCP use that technology to challenge us economically and militarily? Not me.”
Manus founder and CEO Xiao Hong framed the sale as an opportunity to scale the technology globally. “The era of AI that not only talks but also acts, creates, and delivers is just beginning,” he shared on social media, as reported by Al Jazeera. “Now, we have the opportunity to build it at a scale we could never have envisioned.”
Meta has stated its intention to maintain the Manus service while integrating the team of approximately 100 employees into its broader AI organization.