Observers say the deal strengthens Meta’s effort to add agentic AI capabilities across its social media platforms.
- Backed by Benchmark, Manus was set up in 2022 and sells general-purpose AI agents.
- As part of the reportedly $2 billion deal, Meta is absorbing Manus' workforce of about 100 employees.
- Meta has aggressively scaled its AI capacity this year through hiring top AI talent and acquisitions.
Meta Platforms, Inc. is buying Singapore-headquartered artificial intelligence startup Manus and absorbing its 100-member-strong team, executives said on Monday. The deal caps a year of aggressive AI capacity building at the social media giant amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sharp pivot from metaverse-centric products and applications to AI.
Meta has reportedly acquired Manus, which sells AI agents, for upwards of $2 billion. The startup, backed by its parent Beijing Butterfly Effect Technology, had raised $75 million earlier this year at a valuation of around $500 million, according to media reports. U.S. venture firm Benchmark led the funding round.
What Does Manus Do?
Manus was founded by Red Xiao in 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile, and has staff in Singapore, Tokyo, and San Francisco. Manus announced hitting $100 million in annualized revenue earlier this month, and claimed to be the fastest startup to go from $0 to $100M in the world.
The company went viral on X earlier this year after releasing what it claimed was the world's first general AI agent, capable of making decisions and executing tasks with much less prompting than AI chatbots.
AI agents are software systems that can autonomously carry out digital tasks - such as making reservations or preparing reports. Seen as the next phase of AI development beyond chatbots like ChatGPT, which excel at gathering, distilling, and presenting information to user queries, they have recently become a significant focus for Big Tech and AI companies.
Manus' agentic AI is used by millions of users and businesses worldwide, Meta said in a blog post, announcing the deal. The social media company will use Manus technology across its products, while also continue selling Manus services independently.
“The era of AI that doesn't just talk, but acts, creates, and delivers, is only beginning. And now, we get to build it at a scale we never could have imagined,” Xiao said in an X post.
Meta’s Plans
The companies disclosed few details about how the collaboration would work. Meta, which operates WhatsApp and Instagram – the world’s largest digital platforms – is likely working on adding agentic AI capabilities across its services.
“Imagine a WhatsApp that doesn't just remind you of a meeting but researches the participants, prepares a briefing doc, and handles the follow-up emails- all autonomously,” an AI startup founder, Ajay Ponna Venkatesh, discussed on X, in response to Meta’s Alexandr Wang’s X post about the Manus deal.
The deal comes in the backdrop of aggressive expansion for AI. Meta went on an AI hiring blitzkrieg earlier this year, culminating in a $14-billion acquisition of a 49% stake in data-labeling startup Scale AI in July. The company also established Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), a dedicated AI research and development division focused on achieving artificial superintelligence (ASI).
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