Meta has agreed to acquire the Chinese-Singaporean startup Manus, which develops AI «agents» that perform applied tasks on their own: from candidate selection and travel planning to investment portfolio analysis.
Meta has agreed to acquire the Chinese-Singaporean startup Manus, which develops AI «agents» that perform applied tasks on their own: from candidate selection and travel planning to investment portfolio analysis.
According to TechCrunch, the deal values Manus at approximately $2 billion. The article notes that Meta intends to keep the product separate, while gradually integrating agents into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, where Meta AI already operates.
Manus went public in the spring of 2025, claiming that its agent was outperforming OpenAI Deep Research in research scenarios. Benchmark led a $75 million round in April with a post-money valuation of $500 million; it also mentioned a previous $10 million and investors like Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG. The company later launched a paid subscription for $39 or $199 per month and claimed to have millions of users and over $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
A separate risk factor for Meta is the political background due to the Chinese origin of the founders. The parent Butterfly Effect was created in Beijing in 2022, and later the project was moved to Singapore. TechCrunch writes that Senator John Cornyn has publicly criticized American investments in such companies. Meta stated that after the deal is closed, there will be no Chinese shares in Manus, and the service will cease operations in China.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how Mark Zuckerberg has been publicly hinting for months that he is abandoning open-source AI models. Now, Meta’s new, key direction in the field of artificial intelligence is starting to become clear. The company is developing a new model, which has an internal name of Avocado.
