JIM WILSON / NEW YORK TIMES / NOV. 1, 2021
Visitors to the Meta sign in Menlo Park, California.
Meta announced Monday that it will acquire Chinese artificial intelligence startup Manus, as the tech giant accelerates its efforts to integrate advanced AI into its platforms.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but a source with direct knowledge of the matter said the deal values the Singapore-based company at between $2 billion and $3 billion.
Manus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Manus went viral earlier this year on
This prompted commentators to call it China’s next DeepSeek, and it was acclaimed by Chinese state television. A few months later, the company moved its headquarters from China to Singapore, joining a wave of other Chinese companies that did so to reduce risks related to tensions between the United States and China.
“Scrutiny is almost guaranteed; anything with Chinese roots and ‘AI’ in the title now triggers Washington reflexes,” said Jeremy Goldman, senior director at Emarketer.
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Manus, whose products are not available in China, claims that the performance of its AI agent exceeds that of OpenAI’s DeepResearch. It also has a strategic partnership with Alibaba to collaborate on their AI models.
Meta will operate and sell the Manus service and integrate it into its consumer and professional products, including Meta AI, the company said.
“We see a natural fit in Meta’s fast-growing SMB (small and medium business) WhatsApp footprint, with expansions in CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s agent-rich vision of personal AI,” said Barton Crockett, an analyst at Rosenblatt Securities.
Tech giants such as Meta have been ramping up their investments in AI through strategic acquisitions and talent hiring as they face stiff competition in the sector.
Earlier this year, the Facebook owner invested in Scale AI in a deal valuing the data labeling startup at $29 billion and bringing in its 28-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang.
Manus, backed by its parent company Beijing Butterfly Effect Technology, raised $75 million this year, at a valuation of around $500 million, the source said, confirming previous media reports. American venture capital firm Benchmark led the funding round.
Its investors also include HSG, formerly known as Sequoia Capital China, ZhenFund and internet giant Tencent Holdings, according to PitchBook data.
