Meta Platforms said on December 29, 2025 that it has agreed to acquire Manus, a Singapore-based startup that builds general-purpose AI agents, in the company’s latest move to extend its artificial intelligence efforts beyond conversational chatbots. Meta did not disclose terms. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the deal, reported the price at more than $2 billion.
At that valuation the purchase would rank among Meta’s largest acquisitions, behind the 2014 WhatsApp deal and the roughly $14 billion investment the company made in data-labeling firm Scale AI earlier in 2025.
What Manus does
Manus is designed to carry out multistep tasks on a user’s behalf rather than simply answer questions. The system runs in cloud-based virtual machines and can browse the web, run code and work through assignments such as screening job candidates, planning travel or analyzing a portfolio with limited human direction. Products of this kind are usually described as agentic AI, and they have become a central competitive front for the major AI developers in 2025.
The company drew wide attention when it opened an invitation-only preview in March 2025. According to the reports on the acquisition, Manus reached roughly $100 million in annualized recurring revenue within about eight months of launch, a pace that put it among the fastest-growing AI startups of the year. Those revenue figures come from the company and from people familiar with its finances, not from audited filings.
Team joins Meta Superintelligence Labs
Meta said Manus co-founder and chief executive Xiao Hong will join the company as a vice president, and that the Manus team, reported to number about 100 people, will become part of Meta Superintelligence Labs, the AI organization led by Alexandr Wang, who joined Meta as part of the Scale AI transaction.
Meta said Manus will keep its operational base in Singapore and that existing Manus subscriptions will continue. Over time, Meta said, it intends to bring Manus’s agent capabilities into its own products, including Meta AI, WhatsApp and Facebook, so that its assistants can complete tasks rather than only respond to prompts.
China ties to be cut
Manus began as a product of Butterfly Effect Technology, a company founded in China. Amid tightening U.S. and Chinese scrutiny of cross-border AI deals, the business relocated its headquarters and much of its staff to Singapore during 2025. Meta said that once the acquisition closes, Manus will have no remaining operations or ties in mainland China. Reuters noted the Chinese-founded origins of the company in its coverage, and the structure of the deal appears intended to address regulatory sensitivities on both sides.
A year of AI spending
The Manus deal caps a year in which Meta spent heavily to rebuild its AI standing after its Llama 4 models drew a lukewarm reception. In addition to the Scale AI investment, the company reorganized its research under Meta Superintelligence Labs, recruited researchers from rival labs with large pay packages, and bought smaller AI companies including the wearable AI startup Limitless and the audio AI firm WaveForms.
Taken together, the acquisitions point to a strategy of acquiring working products and experienced teams rather than relying only on in-house research. Whether Meta can fold Manus into consumer apps used by billions of people without losing the qualities that made the product popular is the open question that will define the deal’s success.
