Meta buys Manus for $2B, pledges to cut Chinese investor ties, exit China

Meta has agreed to acquire Manus for $2 billion, bringing Manus’s Singapore-based AI agent into Meta’s product ecosystem.

“Chinese authorities have forbidden two of Manus' co-founders, a startup specializing in AI agents recently acquired by Meta, from leaving the country”

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Netpublic.fr reports that Meta will acquire Manus's technology and leadership team, integrating it into its products.

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TechCrunch notes Manus relocated its headquarters and core team from Beijing to Singapore and, after the deal, Meta pledged to cut ties with Manus's Chinese investors and shut down operations in China.

FRENCHWEB.FR frames the acquisition as part of Meta's strategy to strengthen AI capabilities in Asia, with Singapore acting as the regional anchor.

Manus burst onto the scene with a demo of an autonomous AI agent capable of screening candidates, planning vacations, and analyzing stock portfolios, and it claimed to outperform OpenAI’s Deep Research.

Benchmark led a $75 million round at a $500 million valuation, and by December Manus had millions of users and over $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

Netpublic.fr

Manus reported $125 million in revenue from subscriptions, and Manus’s corporate structure with a China-origin parent that moved to Singapore positioned Manus as a Singapore-based entity for the acquisition.

Beijing also hates it and has spent years establishing that no company operates outside its reach.

China has a phrase for all of this: 'selling young crops' — homegrown AI companies that move abroad and sell themselves to foreign buyers before they’ve fully matured.

The transaction is under review by China's Ministry of Commerce, particularly export-control provisions.

Chinese authorities have forbidden two of Manus' co-founders, a startup specializing in AI agents recently acquired by Meta, from leaving the country.

Meta will acquire Manus's technology and leadership team, integrating it into its products.

The press release does not specify where they will fit within the organization.

FRENCHWEB.FR

Meta is prioritizing Singapore as the regional anchor for Manus within its broader AI ambitions.

Meta’s Manus deal underscores the intensity of the global AI race and the regulatory sensitivities around cross-border technology transfers.

“It is a rare acquisition of an Asian tech company by an American giant and the latest multi-billion-dollar investment in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's artificial intelligence”

Netpublic.fr

Beijing’s reaction highlights the risk of IP leakage and state pushback in cross-border AI moves.

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Meta’s spending in AI is framed as intense competition with rivals such as OpenAI, Alphabet's Google, and Microsoft.