Hajra Naz
Mark Zuckerberg has made another decisive move in the AI arms race.
Meta Platforms is acquiring Manus, a Singapore-based artificial intelligence startup that has dominated tech-industry conversations since bursting onto the scene earlier this year. Manus first gained widespread attention in the spring after releasing a highly polished demo video that went viral almost instantly. The clip showcased an AI “agent” capable of screening job candidates, planning travel itineraries, and analyzing stock portfolios—and boldly claimed performance that surpassed OpenAI’s Deep Research tools.
The buzz quickly translated into investor interest. By April, just weeks after its public debut, Manus closed a $75 million funding round led by Benchmark, valuing the young company at roughly $500 million post-money. Benchmark general partner Chetan Puttagunta took a seat on the board. Chinese media reports at the time also indicated that Manus already had backing from major players, including Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG (formerly Sequoia China), which had participated in an earlier $10 million round.
Read More: Meet Manus: China’s AI Agent That Can Handle Complex Tasks for You
Skepticism followed close behind the hype. When Manus began charging subscription fees of $39 and $199 per month for access to its AI models, Bloomberg questioned whether such pricing was justified for a product still described as being in testing. Despite those concerns, Manus appears to have converted curiosity into revenue. The company recently disclosed that it has signed up millions of users and surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue—a rare milestone for an AI startup so early in its lifecycle.
That financial traction is what reportedly caught Meta’s attention. According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta entered acquisition talks soon after Manus crossed the $100 million ARR mark. The deal is said to value Manus at $2 billion, matching the valuation the startup was targeting for its next funding round.
For Zuckerberg, who has publicly committed Meta’s future to artificial intelligence, Manus offers something beautiful: a consumer-facing AI product that is already generating meaningful revenue. That distinction matters as investors grow increasingly uneasy about Meta’s massive AI infrastructure spending, which is expected to exceed $60 billion this year alone.
Meta has indicated that Manus will continue operating as an independent company, while its AI agents are gradually integrated across Meta’s ecosystem—including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—where Meta AI is already being pushed to users worldwide.
However, the acquisition comes with geopolitical complications. Manus was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs who originally established its parent company, Butterfly Effect, in Beijing in 2022 before relocating operations to Singapore earlier this year. That background has already drawn scrutiny in Washington.
Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas and a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, publicly criticized Benchmark’s investment in Manus back in May. In a post on X, Cornyn questioned why American capital should “subsidize our biggest adversary in AI,” warning that China could ultimately use such technology to challenge the U.S. economically and militarily.
Read More: China Proposes New Rules to Regulate Human-Like AI Interactions
Cornyn has long been one of Congress’s most vocal critics of China’s role in global technology competition, but his stance reflects a broader shift in Washington. Tougher scrutiny of Chinese-linked technology companies has become one of the few genuinely bipartisan positions on Capitol Hill.
Anticipating those concerns, Meta has moved quickly to distance the acquisition from China. In a statement to Nikkei Asia, a Meta spokesperson confirmed that Manus will sever all ties with Chinese investors and cease operations in China entirely following the deal.
The spokesperson said.
“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.”
Whether those assurances will be enough to quiet political scrutiny remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that Meta is signaling it wants not just cutting-edge AI, but AI that works, scales, and makes money.
