Meta said on Monday that it will acquire Chinese-founded artificial intelligence startup Manus as part of its efforts to integrate AI across its platforms. While financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Reuters says a source familiar with the matter claimed the deal values the Singapore-based firm at between $2 billion and $3 billion.
Earlier this year, Manus rose to prominence on X after it released what it claimed was the world’s first general AI agent, capable of making decisions and executing tasks autonomously, with much less prompting required than AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek. This led to commentators referring to the firm as “the next DeepSeek,” and was cheered on by Chinese state television.
Months later, the company moved its headquarters from China to Singapore, along with other companies that did so to curb risks from U.S.-China tensions.
In April 2025, Manus went through a $75 million funding round that assigned it a post-money valuation of $500 million. The round was led by venture capital firm Benchmark. According to Chinese media outlets, some other big-name backers had already invested in Manus at that point, including Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG (formerly known as Sequoia China) via a $10 million round.
READ: Meta to spend about $15 billion to acquire AI company (
Manus also recently announced it has since signed up millions of users and was generating annual recurring revenue of more than $100 million. According to WSJ, that’s when Meta started negotiating with Manus.
“Joining Meta allows us to build on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing how Manus works or how decisions are made,” said Xiao Hong, CEO of Manus. “We’re excited about what the future holds with Meta and Manus working together and we will continue to iterate the product and serve users that have defined Manus from the beginning.”
Meta has been investing heavily in AI, and Manus is especially notable since it’s an AI startup that is “actually making money,” according to TechCrunch. This comes at a time when investors have been increasingly skeptical about Meta’s spending spree, and the broader tech industry’s debt-backed expenditures on data center construction.
READ: Meta signs $10 billion deal with Google (
Meta says it’ll keep Manus running independently, and weave the startup’s AI agents into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, where Meta’s own chatbot, Meta AI, is already available to users.
However, there has been concern over the company’s China-ties, and whether that would raise eyebrows in Washington. Senator John Cornyn — a Texas Republican, and one of Congress’s most vocal hawks on China and technology competition — has already criticized Benchmark for its investment in the company, raising concerns back in May about American capital going to a Chinese concern.
Meta told Nikkei Asia that after the acquisition, Manus won’t have any ties to Chinese investors and will no longer operate 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.