Mark Zuckerberg has struck again. Meta Platforms is acquiring Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup that has captured the attention of Silicon Valley since debuting last spring with a demo showcasing AI agents capable of screening job candidates, planning vacations, and analyzing stock portfolios. At launch, Manus claimed its technology outperformed OpenAI’s Deep Research.

Just weeks after its debut, venture capital firm Benchmark led a $75 million funding round in April, valuing Manus at a $500 million post-money valuation. Benchmark general partner Chetan Puttagunta joined the company’s board as part of the deal.

According to Chinese media reports, several high-profile investors had already backed Manus by that point, including Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG (formerly Sequoia China), following an earlier $10 million round.

In mid-December, Manus announced it had signed up millions of users and was generating more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue from monthly and annual subscriptions to its membership service. Shortly thereafter, Meta began acquisition talks, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Meta is reportedly paying $2 billion for Manus—the valuation the startup was said to be seeking for its next funding round.

For Zuckerberg, who has placed AI at the center of Meta’s long-term strategy, Manus represents something rare: an AI product that is already generating meaningful revenue. This comes at a critical moment, as investors have grown increasingly cautious about Meta’s $60 billion infrastructure spending spree and the broader tech industry’s debt-backed investments in data center construction.

Meta has stated that Manus will continue to operate independently while its AI agents are gradually integrated into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, where Meta’s own chatbot, Meta AI, is already available.

Geopolitical Scrutiny

One complication remains: Manus’ Chinese roots. The company’s founders originally established its parent company, Butterfly Effect, in Beijing in 2022 before relocating operations to Singapore earlier this year.

That history has already drawn political scrutiny in Washington. Senator John Cornyn, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, previously criticized Benchmark’s investment in Manus, citing concerns over American capital flowing to a Chinese-linked company.

While Cornyn has long been one of Congress’ most outspoken critics of China’s role in global technology competition, skepticism toward China has increasingly become a bipartisan issue.

In response, Meta told Nikkei Asia that Manus will sever all ties with Chinese investors following the acquisition. “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,” a Meta spokesperson said.