Meta is acquiring the Singapore-based startup Manus to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) agent offerings.
“Manus already meets the daily needs of millions of users and businesses worldwide,” Meta stated in its announcement on Monday (Dec. 29).
“It launched its first general AI agent earlier this year and has served more than 147 trillion tokens and created over 80 million virtual computers. We plan to expand this service to many more businesses.”
While the companies did not disclose a price for the deal, a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) says sources indicated Meta is paying more than $2 billion. The sources also mentioned that Manus had been seeking new funding with a valuation of $2 billion.
The WSJ notes that this acquisition is one of the most notable instances of a U.S. tech giant buying an AI product that originated in Asia’s AI/startup space.
Manus gained more attention and support from the Chinese government in March after showcasing an AI agent that could produce detailed research reports and build custom websites. This used AI models from companies like Anthropic and China’s Alibaba.
This year, the company also launched a new subscription service and mobile app, as well as a text-to-video generative AI tool that turns prompts into structured videos.
For Meta, the WSJ describes the deal as a new direction as it invests heavily in AI to compete with companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google.
Earlier this month, Meta acquired Limitless, which makes AI-powered wearables, and invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI. Alexandr Wang, the founder of Scale AI, also joined Meta as its new chief AI officer.
While investors have reportedly become impatient with Meta’s AI spending, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has engaged in an aggressive recruiting campaign this year, offering executives and researchers multi-million dollar pay packages. The company later paused its AI hiring push and cut 600 positions in its AI unit in October.
With this latest deal, Meta will run and sell Manus’ services and integrate them into its social media platforms. This move helps the parent company of Facebook strengthen its position in the AI agent market, according to the WSJ report.
As mentioned earlier this month, Meta is changing its AI strategy, moving away from open-source AI model development to focus on commercial, revenue-driven AI products. This shift reportedly centers on internal efforts and investment in proprietary models, including a project called Avocado, expected to launch next spring to contest offerings from firms like OpenAI and Google.
“This change reflects Meta’s broader shift in how it gains value from its AI investments,” PYMNTS noted. “Rather than highlighting open-source research as a community benefit, Meta seems focused on developing closed models that can be directly sold, boosting revenue potential but also limiting engagement with external developers.”
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Source: https://www.pymnts.com/