Meta Acquires Manus, the AI Startup That’s Been the Talk of Silicon Valley

Mark Zuckerberg has struck again.

Meta Platforms is acquiring Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup that has gained traction in Silicon Valley since its debut last spring. Manus made waves with a demo video showcasing its AI agents handling tasks such as screening job candidates, planning vacations, and analysing stock portfolios. At the time, Manus claimed that its AI technology outperformed OpenAI’s Deep Research.

In April, just weeks after its launch, Manus raised $75 million in a funding round led by venture capital firm Benchmark, bringing the company’s post-money valuation to $500 million, along with Benchmark’s partner, Chetan Puttagunta. According to Chinese media outlets, Manus had already attracted investment from prominent backers such as Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG (formerly Sequoia China) via a $10 million funding round.

Since then, Manus has signed up millions of users and is generating annual recurring revenue exceeding $100 million from its membership service, which offers monthly and yearly subscriptions.

At this point, Meta entered into negotiations with Manus, ultimately acquiring the startup for $2 billion—the valuation Manus reportedly sought for its upcoming funding round.

For Mark Zuckerberg, who has Meta’s future on AI, Manus represents a key acquisition. Unlike Meta’s previous investments, Manus is an AI product that is actually generating revenue, which is significant given investor concerns about Meta’s $60 billion infrastructure spending spree and the wider industry’s debt-backed expenditures on data centre construction.

Meta has stated that Manus will operate post-acquisition independently. Still, its AI agents will be integrated into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta’s own chatbot, Meta AI, is already available to users.

However, there is one notable wrManus' Manus’ parent company, Butterfly Effect, was initially founded in Beijing in 2022 before moving to Singapore in mid-2025. This raises potential concerns in Washington, especially as Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticised Benchmark for its investment in Manus. Cornyn has long been vocal about the competition in technology with China, and his concerns reflect bipartisan sentiment in Congress about Chinese ties in U.S. tech investments.

Unsurprisingly, Meta has responded, telling Nikkei Asia that, following the acquisition, Manus will sever all ties with Chinese investors and cease operations in China. A Meta spokesperson assure" 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."