Meta buys Manus for $2 billion to power high-stakes AI agent race

Date:
Wed, 31 Dec 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Description:
Metas $2 billion acquisition of Manus signals a major shift toward AI agents that can autonomously handle real work, not just generate responses.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Meta
has acquired AI startup Manus in a deal reportedly worth over $2 billion
Manus builds autonomous AI agents that perform complex tasks like coding and data analysis The acquisition accelerates Metas pivot from chatbot tools to task-completing AI across its platforms

Meta has acquired AI startup Manus , known for its semi-autonomous AI
agents, in a deal reportedly valued at more than $2 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. It's one of the largest AI acquisitions to date. More importantly, it underscores Metas plan to shift from creating foundational models like Llama to providing full-service AI agents capable of completing complex tasks for individuals and businesses.

Meta said it plans to make the AI agent platform part of its Meta AI
assistant and enterprise offerings. Manus agents can perform complex
analytics and long-term research and planning, along with the more usual conversations and image generation. It can also go out to the web and carry out tasks for users, which is why it's named Manus, Latin for hand.

"We will continue to operate and sell the Manus service, as well as integrate it into our products," Meta said in a statement. "Manus is already serving
the daily needs of millions of users and businesses worldwide. It launched
its first General AI Agent earlier this year and has already served more than 147T tokens and created more than 80M virtual computers. We plan to scale
this service to many more businesses."

The reported valuation aligns with where Manus had been headed before Meta intervened. The company had been raising new funds at a $2 billion valuation when Meta approached with an offer. With over $125 million in revenue run
rate just eight months after launch, Manus had proven not only its technical capabilities but also its commercial appeal.

But this isnt just a story of a high-value tech buyout. It marks a
directional turn for Meta, one that deepens its commitment to building AI
that does more than chat. In fact, Manus was not simply another chatbot; it was one of the first widely available agentic systems able to autonomously perform multi-step, goal-oriented tasks using a blend of reasoning, memory, and tool use. Users could, for instance, hand Manus a research objective or a programming task and watch it coordinate a solution end-to-end. Thats a radically different product category than LLMs trained solely to predict the next word. AI agent future

Meta wants to build AI that acts. That's also the reason Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI earlier this year. But a working autonomous AI platform
is several steps beyond. The companys pricing model, a mix of free and
premium subscriptions, helped it grow rapidly, especially among developers, analysts, and SMEs looking to automate workflows without hiring engineers.

And while Meta has been pouring money into building out its own LLMs, developing effective agentic behavior remains a highly specific engineering and design challenge. Tools like planning, memory, tool-use, and recursive reasoning cant simply be bolted onto a large model, and Manus has already solved many of these problems.

Joining Meta allows us to build on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing how Manus works or how decisions are made, Manus CEO Xiao Hong said in a statement. Were excited about what the future holds with Meta and Manus working together, and we will continue to iterate the product and serve users that have defined Manus from the beginning.

Meta is racing to build up AI agents among fierce competition. Googles Gemini is actively developing agentic features, while OpenAIs ChatGPT has introduced tools to perform tasks online and provide more assistance that adapts to context. But Manus promises to make it easy to integrate its services into other platforms. That earned it interest from companies like Microsoft, which tested Manus integration in Windows 11.

With Meta owning the whole thing, what happens next is just as much a
question of strategy as it is technology.

Manuss origins add a layer of complexity. Initially developed under the Chinese AI startup Butterfly Effect before spinning off, concerns over data security likely contributed to its relocation from Beijing to Singapore this year and the layoffs of most of its Chinese workforce. Meta's acquisition
even comes with an explicit condition that there will be no continuing
Chinese ownership interests, according to the companies.

Meta has had to walk a fine line in the global AI race as it skirts
regulatory scrutiny. Manus lets it jump ahead in product development, but
will probably come with at least some probing questions about who owns the data used to run Manus. In 2026, no major American tech company can afford to look like it has Chinese influence, just ask TikTok.

Then theres the hardware angle. Metas Reality Labs division doesn't bring in much cash, but Meta still sees a future of smart glasses and agentic AI assistants that interact with the physical world. Manus could provide the cognitive layer for those ambitions.

The acquisition makes it clear that Meta sees 2026 as the time when AI chatbots will become AI agents. With Manus powering its AI platforms, Meta plans to be the tool of first resort when it comes to AI engaging with the real world.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/meta-buys-manus-for-usd2-billion-to-power-high-s takes-ai-agent-race


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