Meta snaps up AI startup Manus for $2B, drawing scrutiny over new acquisitions Chinese roots | Latest Tech News
Meta Platforms is plowing forward in the AI arms race, snapping up fast-rising startup Manus for more than $2 billion in a lightning deal that delivers a revenue-generating AI agent business — and attracts recent scrutiny over the new acquisition’s Chinese roots.
The sale, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal, caps a meteoric eight-month run for the Singapore-based startup.
It was producing more than $125 million in annual income and was valued at $500 million in its last funding spherical before Meta swooped in with an all-cash buyout of present buyers.
Meta, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, acquired a Singapore-based AI startup for more than $2 billion. AP
Manus was based by Chinese entrepreneurs and initially operated out of Beijing under the startup Butterfly Effect before relocating.
The company’s origins set off alarm bells in Washington amid intensifying US-China tech tensions.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, beforehand blasted American buyers for backing the company, warning against funneling US capital into AI corporations with Chinese roots during a period of strategic rivalry with Beijing.
Meta has moved to neutralize those issues, insisting the acquisition leaves no residual China publicity.
The company told The Post all Chinese buyers have been totally purchased out, Manus will shut down its China-facing merchandise and operations, and staff based in China can be relocated or cut off from delicate systems.
The company has also said Manus employees becoming a member of Meta won’t have access to buyer data and that its AI fashions will stay geo-fenced — steps aimed at heading off a potential national security review and retaining regulators at bay.
Manus was based by Chinese entrepreneurs and initially operated out of Beijing under the startup Butterfly Effect. Instagram / @manusaiofficial
“Meta’s acquisition of Manus AI will enable us to provide the most advanced technology to our users with safeguards in place to eliminate areas of potential risk,” a Meta spokesperson told The Post.
“There will be no continuing Chinese ownership interests in Manus AI following the transaction, and Manus AI will discontinue its services and operations in China.”
Manus was producing more than $125 million in annualized income and was valued at $500 million in its last funding spherical. Instagram / @manusaiofficial
Still, “Scrutiny is almost guaranteed; anything with Chinese roots and ‘AI’ in the headline now triggers Washington’s reflexes,” analyst Jeremy Goldman, senior director at Emarketer, told GWN.
The scrutiny comes as Meta has been pouring tens of billions of {dollars} into AI infrastructure and expertise, making the Manus deal both a strategic wager on autonomous AI brokers and a potential political take a look at case for how far US tech giants can go when international roots collide with national security sensitivities.
Meta has said Manus will continue working its subscription service as a standalone product after the acquisition, even as its engineers are folded into Meta’s broader AI groups to speed up work on autonomous brokers across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the company’s Meta AI assistant.
Who thinks it’s a good concept for American buyers to subsidize our largest adversary in AI, only to have the CCP use that technology to problem us economically and militarily? Not me.
Benchmark joins $75m funding spherical in China’s Manus AI – report https://t.co/5iwh8wKDvx…
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) May 7, 2025
The deal was struck in roughly 10 days, people acquainted with the matter told Bloomberg News, as Meta raced to lock up a fast-growing AI agent business that executives imagine can immediately bolster both its product roadmap and income base.
The Manus acquisition is just one piece of a far broader blitz in the AI space.
The company is forecasting $70 billion to $72 billion in capital spending in 2025 alone, with inside expectations that outlays will top $100 billion in 2026.
Zuckerberg has pledged more than $600 billion in US investment by 2028.
In latest months, Meta has dangled compensation packages price up to $300 million over 4 years — and in some circumstances as a lot as $1.5 billion over six years — to pry elite AI expertise away from OpenAI, Google and Apple in an escalating Silicon Valley arms race.
The Post has sought remark from Manus.
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