Mark Zuckerberg has struck again.
Meta Platforms is obtaining Manus, a Singapore-primarily based AI startup that have become the discussion of Silicon Valley since it introduced last spring with a demo video that demonstrated an AI agent doing such things as screening job candidates, planning holidays, and analyzing stock portfolios. Manus claimed at the time that it surpassed OpenAI’s Deep Research.
In April 2025, simply weeks after release, project capital corporation Benchmark led a $75 million funding around that assigned Manus a post-money valuation of $500 million, and noticed Benchmark standard partner Chetan Puttagunta becoming a member of the startup’s board. Per Chinese media outlets, some other massive-name backers had already invested in Manus at that point, inclusive of Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG (formerly known as Sequoia China) by a $10 million round.
The corporation currently introduced it has since signed up tens of millions of users and was creating annual ordinary revenue of more than $100 million.
That’s while Meta began negotiating with Manus,as per the WSJ, which mentions that the tech giant is paying $2 billion — the valuation Manus was reportedly looking for its next investment round.
For Zuckerberg, who has staked Meta’s future on AI, Manus signifies something latest: an AI product that’s truly making money. This is specially pertinent offer that investors have expanded gradually twitchy about Meta’s $60 billion infrastructure spending spree, and the broader tech industry’s debt-backed expenses on data center construction.
Meta mention that it’ll keep Manus operating independently, and integrate the startup’s AI agents into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, in which Meta’s very own chatbot, Meta AI, is already available to customers.
There is one wrinkle, moreover: Manus’ Chinese founders founded its parent corporation, Butterfly Effect, in Beijing in 2022, earlier than decamping to Singapore in the middle of 2025. Whether that raises flags in Washington stays to be visible, however Senator John Cornyn has already dragged Benchmark for its investment in the corporation, increasing worries back in May about American capital going to a Chinese concern.
Cornyn, a Texas Republican and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has long been one in all Congress’ most vocal hawks on China and technology competition, but he’s hardly alone. Being tough on China has turn out to be a truly bipartisan trouble in Congress.
Unsurprisingly, Meta has already told Nikkei Asia that when the acquisition, Manus won’t have any ties to Chinese investors and will now longer operate in China. “There will be no persevering with Chinese ownership interests in Manus AI following the transaction, and Manus AI will stop its services and operations in China,” a Meta spokesperson informed the outlet.
