Meta announced Monday that it will acquire Chinese artificial intelligence startup Manus as part of its efforts to integrate AI into its platforms. Although financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Reuters says a source familiar with the matter said the deal values the Singapore-based company at between $2 billion and $3 billion.
Earlier this year, Manus rose to prominence on This led commentators to dub the company “the next DeepSeek”, and was acclaimed by Chinese state television.
A few months later, the company moved its China headquarters in Singapore, alongside other companies that have done so to reduce risks related to tensions between the United States and China.
In April 2025, Manus underwent a $75 million funding round that gave it a post-money valuation of $500 million. The round was led by venture capital firm Benchmark. According to Chinese media reports, other high-profile backers had already invested in Manus by that time, including Tencent, ZhenFund and HSG (formerly Sequoia China) via a $10 million funding round.
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Manus also recently announcement Since then, it has signed up millions of users and generated annual recurring revenue of over $100 million. According to the WSJ, this is when Meta began negotiating with Manus.
“Joining Meta allows us to build on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing the way Manus works or the way decisions are made” said Xiao Hong, CEO of Manus. “We are excited about what the future holds with Meta and Manus working together and we will continue to iterate the product and serve the users who have defined Manus from the beginning.”
Meta has invested heavily in AI, and Manus is particularly noteworthy since it’s an AI startup that’s “actually making money,” according to TechCrunch. This comes at a time when investors are increasingly skeptical of Meta’s spending spree and the tech industry’s debt-backed spending as a whole on building data centers.
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Meta says this will allow Manus to operate independently and integrate the startup’s AI agents into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, where Meta’s own chatbot, Meta AI, is already available to users.
However, concerns have been raised about the company’s ties to China and whether it would raise eyebrows in Washington. Sen. John Cornyn — a Texas Republican and one of Congress’s most outspoken hawks on China and tech competition — has previously criticized Benchmark for its investment in the company, raising concerns in May about shifting U.S. capital to a Chinese company.
Meta told Nikkei Asia that after the acquisition, Manus would no longer have any ties to Chinese investors and would no longer operate in China. “There will be no further Chinese participation in Manus AI following the transaction, and Manus AI will cease its services and operations in China,” a Meta spokesperson told the outlet.