Bloomberg/Contributor/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.

---

ZDNET's key takeaways

• Meta has acquired Singapore-based startup Manus.
• Manus went viral in March as the first general AI agent.
• The deal could help Meta to gain a competitive edge.

---

Meta announced on Monday that it's acquiring Manus, the China-founded startup that went viral earlier this year with the release of what was promoted as the first truly useful AI agent. The deal, which The Wall Street Journal reported was valued at over $2 billion, marks Meta's latest effort to push to the forefront of the AI race.

"Manus's exceptional talent will join Meta's team to deliver general-purpose agents across our consumer and business products, including in Meta AI," Meta wrote in its announcement. "We're excited to welcome the Manus team and help improve the lives of billions of people and millions of businesses with their technology."

Also: What are AI agents? How to access a team of personalized assistants

Despite its vast supply of capital and computing resources -- it's currently ranked as the sixth most valuable company in the world -- Meta was something of a late bloomer when it comes to consumer-facing AI. The acquisition of Manus, however, could help it to deploy more practically useful AI systems to its already expansive user base, and close the gap separating it from industry-leading AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind.

How Meta could benefit

Launched in March with financial backing from the Chinese firm Beijing Butterfly Effect Technology, Manus made waves across the tech world for its ability to handle complex tasks with less human oversight and prompting than are required by more traditional chatbots, such as ChatGPT. (Manus moved its headquarters from Beijing to Singapore in June to sidestep the US government's export controls of high-value GPUs to China.)

Leading tech developers in the US soon followed suit by releasing their own agents, like OpenAI's Operator, which were broadly marketed as a form of AI that would be genuinely useful to individual users and businesses: able to not only respond to prompts but also browse the web, fill out forms, analyze financial data, generate reports, and handle other tasks.

Also: Why AI agents failed to take over in 2025 - it's 'a story as old as time,' says Deloitte

The acquisition of Manus could allow Meta to build and launch its own agents across Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp. A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to a question about whether the company plans to give its Meta AI assistant an agentic upgrade following the acquisition.

But Meta isn't just integrating Manus's technology into its products: The Singapore-based startup will also continue to operate and sell its own service, according to Monday's announcement, meaning that a separate revenue stream from millions of additional users will flow into Meta's coffers, further fueling its AI ambitions, including its goal of being the first to build "superintelligence."

Meta's pivot to AI

Meta changed its name from Facebook in October 2021 to signal its transition from a primarily social media-oriented brand to one focused on building the so-called "metaverse," a virtual world that, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, would be the future of commerce and socialization. However, that dream fizzled as virtual reality headset sales lagged and metaverse platforms, such as Meta's Horizon Worlds, became virtual ghost towns.

Following the release of ChatGPT a little over three years ago and the ensuing fervor throughout the tech industry for all things generative AI, Zuckerberg did an about-face, declaring 2023 his company's "Year of Efficiency," and making AI research and development one of its top priorities. 

Also: As Meta fades in open-source AI, Nvidia senses its chance to lead

Meta has invested heavily since then in its Llama family of open-sourced large language models, and also in embedding its Meta AI assistant across its family of apps. It has also been aggressively pushing to attract and acquire top talent. In June, Meta invested a reported sum of $14.3 billion in the data-labeling company Scale AI, and appointed the company's CEO, the 28-year-old Alexandr Wang, as its new chief AI officer. 

The company announced a partnership with Midjourney a couple of months later, with an eye toward integrating the latter company's generative AI tools across Meta's family of apps.