Meta Acquires Manus for Over $2B to Power Its Autonomous AI Agent Push

The acquisition of Manus represents a pivotal move for Meta in its pursuit to not only compete but lead in the era of autonomous AI agents. Manus is not just another experimental chatbot; it is a commercial product with real revenue—the startup amassed over US$100 million in annual recurring revenue within months of public launch—making it one of the rare AI ventures already monetizing at scale.

In financial terms, though Meta declined to disclose the price, multiple reputable sources peg the valuation at between US$2-3 billion, reflecting both market expectations for profitable AI agents and the premiums placed on startups that marry strong technical capability with user traction.

However, what complicates this transaction are the geopolitical dimensions. Manus was founded in China in 2022 by Chinese entrepreneurs, with early investment from major Chinese firms like Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG. Amid growing US-China tensions around AI, Meta has committed to sever all Chinese ownership, shutter Manus’s China operations, and restrict access for former China-based personnel to sensitive data.

This is an important signal to U.S. regulators and policymakers that Meta is aware of national security and supply-chain concerns. Although moving the headquarters to Singapore earlier in 2025 reduced some exposure, Manus’s origins still trigger scrutiny. The deal is thus a test case for how cross-border AI startup acquisitions from China will be perceived and regulated going forward. There is also operational risk in integrating Manus’s team and technology into Meta without eroding its startup culture or product identity.

Strategically, for Meta, Manus offers a boost to its “agentic AI” capabilities—capable of autonomous multi-step tasks such as coding, market research, and planning—enabling tighter integration into Meta AI, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. It could accelerate Meta’s shift from being an AI infrastructure spender to an AI product revenue generator. But for competitors, this raises the bar: value creation will increasingly come from agent-oriented capabilities, not just foundation models and infrastructure.

Open questions remain: how effectively Meta can retain Manus’s engineering talent and product velocity post-integration; how its Chinese origins will affect regulatory treatment in the U.S. and elsewhere; how Chinese authorities will view this tightening loss of AI capability; and whether this sets precedent for similar exits by China-rooted startups.