Meta acquires AI startup Manus in deal valued at over $2 billion

Meta has acquired AI startup Manus in a deal valued at more than $2 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The purchase is reported to be among the largest involving a startup nurtured in China’s AI ecosystem.

Manus arrived in March 2025, shortly after fellow newcomer DeepSeek. The firm was originally called Butterfly Effect and described itself as "the first general AI agent" able to perform complex tasks autonomously.

The company’s agent draws from several third-party models, notably Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and versions of Alibaba’s Qwen.

Manus is designed to automate tasks such as market research, coding, sales data analysis and website cloning and creation. One critic called it "a product devilishly optimized for influencers, which is why it exploded so much."

The company says its product Manu is "already serving the daily needs of millions of users and businesses" and had an annualized average revenue of more than $100 million just eight months after launch.

Manus laid off most of its Beijing employees this summer and moved its headquarters to Singapore as it sought to expand globally. It had been seeking a funding round that would have valued it at $2 billion when Meta approached the company.

Manus CEO Xiao Hong said joining Meta "allows us to build on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing how Manus works or how decisions are made."

Key Topics

AI, United States, Tech, Meta, Ai Agents, Startups, China Ai