Meta buys startup known for its AI task automation agents
Meta has acquired an AI startup called Manus – known for its personalized search and website building agents – in a deal valued at more than $2 billion, according toThe Wall Street Journal. This would be one of the largest acquisitions ever involving a startup from China’s AI ecosystem.
Manus arrived in March 2025, shortly after the emergence of another Chinese AI startup, DeepSeek. The company (called Butterfly Effect at the time) originally described it as “the first general AI agent” capable of performing complex tasks autonomously, rather than simply generating ideas. It draws inspiration from several third-party models, including Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and versions of Alibaba’s Qwen.
Manus is designed to automate certain tasks, such as market research, coding, sales data analysis, and website cloning and creation. (However, one skeptic called it “a product diabolically optimized for influencers, which is why it blew up so much.”) The company says Manu “already serves the daily needs of millions of users and businesses” and has average annualized revenue of more than $100 million just eight months after its launch.
Manus laid off most of its employees in Beijing this summer before moving its headquarters to Singapore in a bid to expand globally. The company was reportedly looking for a funding round that would have valued it at $2 billion when it was approached by Meta. “Joining Meta allows us to build on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing the way Manus operates or the way decisions are made,” said Xiao Hong, CEO of Manus, in a company press release.
