MENLO PARK: Meta Platforms (META.O) said on Tuesday it acquired Singapore-based artificial intelligence start-up Manus, a developer of general-purpose AI agents, as the social media giant accelerates its massive investments into automating complex business and consumer tasks.
While Meta did not disclose financial terms, the Wall Street Journal reported the deal was valued at over $2 billion, citing people familiar with the matter. The start-up had been seeking a fresh funding round at a $2 billion valuation when Meta approached it, the Journal reported.
Founded initially in China before relocating to Singapore, Manus launched its first general AI agent earlier this year. The agent performs tasks like market research, coding, and data analysis. The company claimed it achieved an annualized average revenue exceeding $100 million within eight months of launch, with a revenue run rate over $125 million.
“Manus is already serving the daily needs of millions of users and businesses worldwide … We plan to scale this service to many more businesses,” Meta said in a statement. The tech giant said the acquisition aims to accelerate AI innovation and integrate advanced automation into products, including its Meta AI assistant.
Manus will continue operating its subscription service without disruption, and its employees will join Meta, the companies said.
The acquisition highlights Meta’s aggressive strategy of acquiring specialized AI startups to secure top talent and technology. This follows Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI in June and its acquisition of AI-wearables start-up Limitless earlier this month.
“Joining Meta allows us to build on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing how Manus works or how decisions are made,” Manus CEO Xiao Hong said in a release.
Manus began as a product of Chinese start-up Butterfly Effect before becoming a separate entity. It gained attention this year by claiming its chatbot outperformed OpenAI’s Deep Research agent. The company is backed by U.S. venture firm Benchmark, Tencent, and HongShan Capital Group, and raised $75 million in a Series B round in April.
As part of a global expansion push, Manus moved its headquarters to Singapore in June and laid off most of its Beijing staff in July, according to reports. The firm also announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba’s Qwen AI team in March.
Manus’s tools have drawn interest from major tech firms, with Microsoft testing its AI agent in Windows 11 in October. The company claims to have processed over 147 trillion “tokens” of text and data and supports more than 80 million virtual computers.
The deal underscores the intensifying competition for AI talent, with Meta actively recruiting from rivals like OpenAI and Google (GOOGL.O) to fuel its ambitions in developing open-source Llama models and AI-powered products.