Meta has announced the acquisition of Manas, a Chinese-based AI company, in a bid to improve the capabilities of its technology.
Analysts at Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal suggested the deal could be worth more than $2 billion (£1.48 billion).
Meta said the deal will help improve its AI by giving people access to “agents” – tools that can perform complex tasks with minimal user interaction, such as planning trips or creating presentations.
“Manus' extraordinary talent will join Meta's team to provide general-purpose agents for our consumer and business products, including Meta AI,” the company said in a blog post.
Barton Crockett, an analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, told Reuters that Meta was a “natural fit” to expand on President Mark Zuckerberg's “vision of personal AI” using agents.
Manas, which is based in Singapore after relocating from China, aims to differentiate itself from rival AI developers by claiming it can be a “truly autonomous” agent.
Unlike many chatbots, which require users to repeatedly ask questions before getting the response they want, Manas said his service can plan, execute and complete tasks independently according to instructions.
This forms part of the company's mission to “extend human reach” with general-purpose agents that can assist, rather than replace, human work.
The company said the acquisition by Meta was a “validation” of its efforts.
“Joining Meta allows us to build a stronger and more sustainable foundation for Manas without changing the way we work or make decisions,” Xiao Hong, the company's chief executive officer and one of its Chinese founders, said in a blog post.
“We're excited about what the future holds for Meta and Manus together. We look forward to continuing to iterate on the product and serve the users who defined Manus in the first place.”
As part of the deal, Meta said it will continue to operate and sell Manas' AI services.
This marks another high-profile move by the Silicon Valley tech giant to solidify its presence in the space through deals with emerging startups.
In June, the company spent $14 billion to acquire 49% of Scale AI, securing a boss who will take a lead role in developing Meta's technology.
This comes as Zuckerberg is reportedly increasing spending on the company's AI strategy and poaching talent from rivals such as OpenAI.
