Meta Buys AI Startup Manus To Boost Advanced AI

The showcase highlighted an AI agent capable of tasks such as screening job candidates, planning vacations and analyzing stock portfolios, with Manus claiming performance beyond OpenAI’s Deep Research.

By April, just weeks after its launch, Manus secured a $75 million funding round led by Benchmark, valuing the company at $500 million post-money, with general partner Chetan Puttagunta joining its board. Chinese media reported earlier backing from Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG (formerly Sequoia China) through a prior $10 million round.

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While Bloomberg questioned Manus’s subscription pricing of $39 or $199 per month during its testing phase, the company later announced it had attracted millions of users and surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta then entered acquisition talks agreeing to pay $2 billion matching Manus’s targeted valuation for its next funding round.

For Mark Zuckerberg, who has positioned AI at the center of Meta’s strategy, Manus stands out as a rare example of an AI product generating significant revenue amid concerns over Meta’s heavy infrastructure investments.

Meta says it’ll keep Manus running independently while weaving its agents into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, where Meta’s own chatbot, Meta AI, is already available to users.

One complication remains: Manus, which launched eight months ago, was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs who originally established its parent company, Butterfly Effect, in Beijing in 2022 before relocating operations to Singapore earlier this year.

Cornyn, a Texas Republican and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been among Congress’s most outspoken critics of China in the technology arena. His stance reflects a broader, genuinely bipartisan consensus in Washington on taking a tough approach toward China.

Unsurprisingly, Meta has told Nikkei Asia that following the acquisition, Manus will sever all ties with Chinese investors and cease operations in China.

“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 told the outlet.