Meta acquires Singapore-based AI startup Manus AI. Autonomous AI agents could be integrated into meta-products and reach billions of users.
Meta announced the acquisition of AI agent startup Manus AI. The company builds general-purpose agent AI systems based on existing models, designed to uniquely handle complex tasks such as market research, programming, and data analysis.
Meta said Manus services will continue to run and remain available for purchase. The company also plans to integrate this technology into its products, such as Meta AI. Going forward, the Manus team will focus on developing AI agents for Meta's consumer and business products. Manas CEO Xiao Hong will become Meta's vice president.
Meta did not provide specific numbers regarding Manus AI's success or the acquisition price. According to Bloomberg, the deal is worth more than $2 billion. At the time of the acquisition, Manas was reportedly generating $125 million in annual recurring revenue.
Since launching earlier this year, the agent has reportedly processed over 147 trillion tokens and launched over 80 million virtual computers. On the technical side, Manus launched a service in March that runs on a multi-agent architecture with a variety of open source tools, including Anthropic's Claude Sonnet and Browser Use.
Manas positions itself as the “execution layer” of AI
In his company's press release, Manas characterized the acquisition as validation of the company's efforts in general AI agents. The company describes itself as an “execution layer” that turns advanced AI capabilities into scalable systems that can be used in the real world.
Xiao Hong says the way Manas works and makes decisions will not change. The subscription service will continue to be available through the app and website, and the company will continue to operate from Singapore. The long-term goal is to serve millions of businesses and billions of people on Meta's platform.
Microsoft integrated Manus just before acquiring Meta.
Manus recently released version 1.5. This reportedly reduced task processing time from 15 minutes to 4 minutes in some cases, and improved the quality of results by 15%. The system is reportedly capable of building complete web applications, including backends and databases.
Microsoft recently integrated Manus into Windows Explorer, even though OpenAI's similar product was already available. Users can automatically create websites by right-clicking on local files. Now, the startup will join one of Microsoft's competitors.
From Chinese browser extensions to meta
Manas goes back to 2022, when Xiao Hong founded Butterfly Effect and launched a browser extension called Monica. The AI assistant works with several major language models such as ChatGPT and Claude and was targeted at international markets from the beginning. By 2024, Monica had over 10 million users and was profitable. The startup has raised funding from ZhenFund and Tencent.
The founding team includes CEO Xiao Hong, chief scientist Ji Yiqiao, and product partner Zhang Tao. Ji Yichao dropped out of school and made a name for himself by developing the Mammoth Browser at the age of 17, and later developed the Magi search engine. Manus was announced in X on March 5, 2025 and officially launched the next day.
After its founding, Butterfly Effect raised an additional $75 million in a benchmark-led round in April 2025, valuing the company at approximately $500 million. The U.S. Treasury Department later reviewed the investment for potentially violating 2023 investment restrictions on Chinese AI companies.
In May 2025, the three founders and other executives relocated from China to Singapore, where the company established a new headquarters. Butterfly Effect has reportedly shut down its entire Chinese team by July 2025 to reduce geopolitical risks. The company employed dozens of staff in China just before the closure. Butterfly Effect has since opened offices in San Mateo and Tokyo, and is hiring in Singapore, the United States and Japan.
Meta fills the gap in AI strategy
The acquisition comes at a critical time for Meta. The company's homegrown Llama model family has recently lost ground, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google dominating the AI headlines with their models. Investors are increasingly skeptical that Meta's massive AI investment will quickly translate into meaningful returns. Manus works on a subscription model, so they may be able to provide returns more quickly.
In the growing AI agent market, which many see as the next big evolution beyond chatbots, Meta has not made any notable gains. With Manas, the company is buying a working agent system and an experienced team rather than building one from scratch. It remains to be seen how well this technology will integrate into Meta's ecosystem of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The partnership will also offer products based on competitors' models. In parallel with the Manus acquisition, Meta is developing new AI models for text, images and video, codenamed “Mango” and “Avocado”, expected in the first half of 2026. Meta again uses external models such as Google's Gemma and Alibaba's Qwen, according to the report. This reflects increasing competitive pressure in generative AI and mixed internal reviews of early models such as Llama 4.
Development is being carried out in the newly formed “Meta Superintelligence Labs” division led by Alexandr Wang. According to reports, Meta plans to release Avocado as a closed model, a major departure from its previous open source strategy.
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