Mark Zuckerberg is making headlines again.
Meta Platforms is set to acquire Manus, an AI startup based in Singapore that has captured the attention of Silicon Valley since it launched this spring with a demo video that went viral. The video showcased an AI agent capable of screening job candidates, planning vacations, and analyzing stock portfolios. At the time, Manus claimed it outperformed OpenAI’s Deep Research.
By April, just a few weeks after its debut, the early-stage firm Benchmark led a $75 million funding round, giving Manus a post-money valuation of $500 million. General partner Chetan Puttagunta joined the board. Reports from Chinese media indicated that other prominent backers had already invested in Manus, including Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG (previously known as Sequoia China) through an earlier $10 million round.
Though Bloomberg raised eyebrows when Manus began charging $39 or $199 a month for access to its AI models—suggesting the pricing was “somewhat aggressive…for a membership service still in a testing phase”—the company announced it had signed up millions of users and surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
That’s when Meta began talks with Manus, according to the WSJ, which reported that Meta is paying $2 billion—the same valuation Manus was aiming for in its next funding round.
For Zuckerberg, who has pinned Meta’s future on AI, Manus represents something new: an AI product that’s generating revenue (investors are growing increasingly anxious about Meta’s $60 billion spending spree on infrastructure).
Meta has stated that it will keep Manus operating independently while integrating its agents into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, where Meta’s own chatbot, Meta AI, is already available.
There is one complication, however: Manus was launched eight months ago by founders from China, who started the parent company Butterfly Effect in Beijing in 2022 before moving to Singapore earlier this year. It remains to be seen if this raises concerns in Washington, but Senator John Cornyn has already criticized Benchmark for its investment, questioning on X in May whether it was wise for American investors to support a potential adversary in AI, suggesting the Chinese government could use that technology to challenge the U.S. economically and militarily.
Cornyn, a Texas Republican and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has consistently vocalized concerns about China and technology competition, and he is not alone—being tough on China has emerged as a bipartisan issue in Congress.
Unsurprisingly, Meta has informed Nikkei Asia that after the acquisition, Manus will sever 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.
