AI agents are tools that do not require human supervision to perform certain digital tasks
[SAN FRANCISCO] Meta Platforms has agreed to acquire Singapore-based startup Manus, adding the popular artificial intelligence (AI) agent as the social media company looks to build a business around huge AI investments.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI a top priority for his company, spending billions of dollars to hire researchers, build data centers and develop new models. Manus, which had an annual revenue run rate of $125 million earlier this year, sells its AI agents to businesses through a subscription service, which could allow Meta to recoup some of its AI investments more immediately. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Manas released its product earlier this year, a so-called AI agent that can complete several common tasks, such as reviewing resumes, creating travel itineraries, and analyzing stocks, based on basic instructions. Butterfly Effect, the parent company behind Manas, was founded in China before relocating to Singapore and raised funding at a valuation of nearly US$500 million in an investment round led by US venture capital firm Benchmark earlier this year.
Meta is spending aggressively to fight AI competition from rivals such as OpenAI, Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Microsoft, while Zuckerberg has pledged to spend $600 billion on U.S. infrastructure projects over the next three years, much of which is expected to be AI-related. The company has hired a team of heavily funded researchers to develop a new cutting-edge AI model expected to debut next spring, but it has also faced skepticism from investors who worry that Meta's spending won't translate into meaningful revenue anytime soon.
AI agents are tools that do not require human supervision to perform certain digital tasks. Enterprise software companies like Salesforce and ServiceNow have been touting their versions of agents as the most effective way for companies to use the emerging technology, rather than generative AI features like chatbots that require user prompts.
Meta said in a statement Monday that it will continue to operate and sell Manas' services and integrate its agents into its consumer and business products. Meta has already introduced Meta AI, an AI chatbot, available through the company's social media and messaging platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in addition to AI Glasses.
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Meta will acquire the technology and leadership group from Manus, but the companies have not disclosed where the new team will be located within the organization. Alexandr Wang, the company's chief AI officer, joined Meta this summer as part of a high-profile investment in his startup, Scale AI.
Following the announcement, Wang posted on X welcoming the Manus team to Meta, and Manus co-founder and CEO Xiao Hong also said in a post of his own that the deal will help expand his company's agency reach. “The era of AI that doesn't just talk, but acts, creates, and delivers, is just beginning,” he wrote. “And now we can build it on a scale we never imagined possible.”
VC firm Benchmark was criticized earlier this year by lawmakers and other venture investors for backing AI companies with ties to China. “Who thinks it’s a good idea for U.S. investors to subsidize our biggest adversary in AI so that the Chinese Communist Party can use that technology to challenge us economically and militarily? Not me,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a May post on X. Benchmark did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Meta trading on Monday. bloomberg
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