Mark Zuckerberg has struck again. Meta Platforms is acquiring Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup that became the talk of Silicon Valley this spring. The company captured widespread attention with a slick demo video showing an AI agent capable of screening job candidates, planning vacations, and analyzing stock portfolios. At the time, Manus claimed its technology outperformed OpenAI’s Deep Research.
Just weeks after its launch, the early-stage firm Benchmark led a substantial $75 million funding round in April, assigning Manus a post-money valuation of $500 million. Benchmark’s general partner Chetan Puttagunta joined the board. Reports indicate other prominent backers, including Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG, had already invested via an earlier $10 million round.
While Bloomberg later raised questions about Manus charging monthly fees for access to its models during a testing phase, the company recently announced it had since signed up millions of users and crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. This impressive growth reportedly triggered negotiations with Meta.
According to reports, Meta is paying $2 billion for the acquisition, matching the valuation Manus was seeking for its next funding round. For Mark Zuckerberg, who has staked Meta’s future on artificial intelligence, Manus represents a novel asset: a profitable AI product. This comes as investors have grown increasingly concerned about Meta’s massive infrastructure spending.
Meta states it will keep Manus running independently while integrating its AI agents into platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, where Meta’s own chatbot is already available.
There is one notable wrinkle, however. Manus, which launched eight months ago, was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs who established its parent company, Butterfly Effect, in Beijing in 2022 before moving operations to Singapore this year. This background has already drawn political scrutiny. Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, publicly criticized Benchmark’s investment in the company back in May, questioning the wisdom of American investors subsidizing a key adversary in AI.
Being tough on China is a bipartisan issue in Congress, raising questions about whether the deal will face regulatory hurdles in Washington. In response, Meta has already stated that following the acquisition, Manus will have no ties to Chinese investors and will discontinue all services and operations in China.