Meta has announced it will acquire artificial intelligence startup Manus, marking a rare crossover between US and Chinese-linked technology at a time of intense rivalry between Washington and Beijing.
The deal will see Meta take over the operation of Manus’s self-directing AI agent and integrate the technology into its own ecosystem, including consumer and business tools. Meta described the move as a way to bring one of the world’s most advanced autonomous agents to a global audience.
“Manus’s exceptional talent will join Meta’s team to deliver general-purpose agents across our consumer and business products, including in Meta AI,” the company said in a statement on Monday. “We’re excited to welcome the Manus team and help improve the lives of billions of people and millions of businesses with their technology.”
Founded in China in 2022, Manus relocated to Singapore earlier this year, a move that helped smooth regulatory and geopolitical sensitivities. The startup markets its core product as a “virtual colleague” that can independently plan, execute and deliver complete work tasks, from analysing stocks to building travel itineraries, with minimal human input.
Manus founder and CEO Xiao Hong framed the acquisition as validation of a bet many doubted.
“We were told it was too early, too ambitious, too hard. But we kept building. Through the doubts, the setbacks, and the countless nights wondering if we were chasing the impossible. We weren’t,” Xiao wrote on social media. “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.”
Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Meta said the transaction would fold Manus’s technology and team directly into its AI strategy, underscoring its push to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving race for autonomous agents.
Manus generated heavy buzz in tech circles after its March launch, with some drawing parallels to the surge of interest around DeepSeek, another Chinese-developed AI product. The company claims to have created more than 80 million virtual computers and announced earlier this month that its annual recurring revenue had topped $100m, which it says makes it the fastest startup ever to reach that milestone.
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