Meta announced Monday the acquisition of Manus, an AI agent startup, capping a busy year of AI development and acquisitions.
- Backed by Benchmark, Manus was founded in 2022 and sells general-purpose AI agents.
- As part of the estimated $2 billion deal, Meta will absorb Manus’ workforce of approximately 100 employees.
- Meta has aggressively increased its AI capacity this year by recruiting top AI talent and making acquisitions.
Meta Platforms, Inc. is buying Manus, a Singapore-based artificial intelligence startup, and absorbing its 100-member team, its executives announced Monday. The deal caps a year of aggressive AI capacity building at the social media giant, amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg. sharp pivot from products and applications focused on the AI metaverse.
Although transactions were relatively modest, Meta had a fairly busy second half in terms of acquisitions. With the Manus deal, Meta acquired five startups (see chart) – all with a common theme: AI or related technologies.
|
To start up |
Sector |
Date |
Transaction size |
| Manus | AI Agents | December 25 | $2 billion and counting (reported) |
| Unlimited | AI-enabled wearable devices | December 25 | Undisclosed |
| Rivos | Semiconductors | September 25 | Undisclosed |
| Waveforms | AI voice technology | August 25 | Undisclosed |
| Play AI | AI voice technology | July 25 | Undisclosed |
| Evolving AI | AI Data Labeling | June-25 | 49% stake for $14 billion |
Source: Media reports, Stocktwits research
What does Manus do?
Meta would have acquired Manus, which sells AI agents, for more than $2 billion. The startup, backed by its parent company Beijing Butterfly Effect Technology, had raised $75 million earlier this year at a valuation of around $500 million, according to media reports. American venture capital firm Benchmark led the funding round.
Manus was founded by Red Xiao in 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile, and has staff in Singapore, Tokyo and San Francisco. Manus announcement reaching $100 million in annualized revenue earlier this month and claimed to be the fastest startup to go from $0 to $100 million in the world.
The company went viral on
AI agents are software systems that can autonomously perform digital tasks, such as making reservations or preparing reports. Seen as the next phase of AI development beyond chatbots like ChatGPT, which excel at collecting, distilling, and presenting information to user queries, they have recently become an important priority for large tech and AI companies.
Manus’ agentic AI is used by millions of users and businesses around the world, Meta said in a statement. blog postannouncing the agreement. The social media company will use Manus technology across all its products, while continuing to sell Manus services independently.
“The era of AI that doesn’t just talk, but acts, creates and delivers, is just beginning. And now we can build it on a scale we could never have imagined,” Xiao said in a statement. Message.
Meta’s plans
The companies have disclosed few details about how the collaboration will work. Meta, which operates WhatsApp and Instagram – the world’s largest digital platforms – is likely working on adding agentic AI capabilities to all of its services.
“Imagine a WhatsApp that not only reminds you of a meeting, but searches for participants, prepares an information document and manages follow-up emails, all autonomously,” Ajay Ponna Venkatesh, founder of an AI startup. discussed onin response to Meta’s Alexandr Wang’s post X on the Manus deal.
The deal comes amid an aggressive expansion of AI. Meta embarked on an AI recruiting blitz earlier this year, which resulted in a $14 billion investment. acquisition of a 49% stake in data labeling startup Scale AI in July. The company also created Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), a division dedicated to AI research and development focused on artificial superintelligence (ASI).
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