Sources: Meta is buying Manus for $2B+; Manus was raising at a $2B valuation when Meta approached it; Manus CEO Xiao Hong will report to Meta COO Javier Olivan

The deal for more than $2 billion is one of the first in which a major U.S. tech company has bought a startup with Chinese roots

Wall Street Journal 2025-12-30

Discussion

@danprimack Dan Primack on x
Remarkable how AI has reset the valuation game. Meta today buying Manus AI for 2x what it paid for Instagram, and 4x what Manus got from VCs this past spring.
@kylebrussell Kyle Russell on x
once you get on the anti-AI grift you start saying things like a company being worth $2 billion dollars is evidence that it is worthless [image]
@mattturck Matt Turck on x
Timeline for launch to funding to $100M ARR to big exit: SaaS era = 10 years AI era = 10 months
@jchengwsj Jonathan Cheng on x
Meta Buys AI Startup Manus for More Than $2 Billion—The deal is one of the first in which a major U.S. tech company has bought a startup with Chinese roots @AngelAuYeung @raffaelehuang @KateClarkTweets https://www.wsj.com/... https://www.wsj.com/...
@edzitron.com Ed Zitron on bluesky
Oh so they sold to Meta for $2bn when they were raising at that valuation? Sounds like a company that had a future to me [image]
@red_xiao_ @red_xiao_ on x
Today marks a moment I'll remember for the rest of my life. When we started Manus, few believed that general AI agents could work. We were told it was too early, too ambitious, too hard. But we kept building. Through the doubts, the setbacks, and the countless nights wonderin…
@alexandr_wang Alexandr Wang on x
Excited to announce that @ManusAI has joined Meta to help us build amazing AI products! The Manus team in Singapore are world class at exploring the capability overhang of today's models to scaffold powerful agents. Looking forward to working with you, @Red_Xiao_!
@paularambles @paularambles on x
incredible [image]
@mattturck Matt Turck on x
The narrative that Benchmark was perhaps an endangered firm lasted a solid 2 months.
@itsurboyevan Evan Armstrong on x
$125M revenue run rate company—fascinating acquisition by Meta. Also...where is the purchase price? This has to be material enough size to be disclosed right?
@turnernovak Turner Novak on x
Manus is being acquired by Meta after going zero to $100m ARR in nine months (and recently crossed $125m). No public mention of the price, but assuming this is big enough that we'll see it disclosed in SEC filings eventually.
@chrisrmcguire Chris McGuire on x
This is a very interesting development, which potentially demonstrates the power and strategic impact of U.S. outbound investment restrictions into Chinese AI firms. Here's a brief history of the saga of @ManusAI : [...]
@scobleizer Robert Scoble on x
Another interesting AI company gets acquired. Well now we know how Meta will turn agentic.
@gerstenzang Sam Gerstenzang on x
Seems likely Benchmark returned its $425 million 1.5 year-old fund with the Manus acquisition. A lot of folks had written Benchmark off: small fund, not as out there, smaller partnership.
@natfriedman Nat Friedman on x
🥳
@deryatr_ Derya Unutmaz on x
Wow! @ManusAI joining @Meta is big news! For the first time, I've just become bullish on @AIatMeta, as Manus has been one of my favorite AI platforms since their early days. It's really amazing! This is a smart move by Meta! Although I hope the Manus team continues to improve it.
@sarahtavel Sarah Tavel on x
Will never forget @chetanp hopping on a plane at a drop of a hat to meet this team, and saying clearly after they presented to our partnership: “we just need to be in business with this team.” Huge congratulations to the incredible @ManusAI team on their relentless execution.
@rakyll Jaana Dogan on x
Meta acquiring Manus could be the only good thing they achieved in the last 6 months.
@emostaque Emad on x
Congrats to @ManusAI team on their way to @metaai I wonder if @Microsoft or similar will snap up @genspark_ai... If you want to try the best open source version fully private it's II-Agent by @ii_posts Lots more features to come, agents now give a big boost over raw models 🚀
@hhua_ Han on x
Remember the VCs ridiculing Benchmark investing in Manus? Who had the last smile?
@luke_metro @luke_metro on x
So I guess this review was a nothing burger? [image]
@joshconstine Josh Constine on x
Bored with the metaverse, Zuck is pivoting from helping you waste time to helping you get stuff done The China -> Singapore-based startup raised $75M led by Benchmark at $500M, and had a $125M+ run-rate selling agents to SMBs. Easy to imagine Meta building advertising agents.
@signulll @signulll on x
if you're building in ai right now, you should be designing for where the models & unit economics will be a year from now. today's costs & today's constraints are pretty much already outdated.
@ozenhati Hatice Ozen on x
meta's 2026 revival has commenced
@chongz Timothy Luong on x
This is a 9 month old company, even the founders haven't vested 💀
@hidecloud @hidecloud on x
18 months ago, I decided to join with @Red_Xiao_ and @peakji on my sofa. No one knew where it would lead. We just kept building, pivoting, and shipping—again and again—until now. Grateful to our team and every user who believed early. Day 1 isn't over. We'll keep shipping. [image…
@danielnewmanuv Daniel Newman on x
$META gets its Manus. 💪🏻🚀 Our top 2026 prediction is a big bounce for META as its AI investments and talent starts to turn the crank. 👀
@simonbalmain Simon Balmain on x
This is a good time to remind you that rabbit intern destroyed Manus in a head-to-head on dozens of tasks that we tested with the exact same prompt on both. And our subscription is currently unlimited use on the monthly plan. No random token allocations.
@peakji Yichao ‘Peak’ Ji on x
21 years ago and 13 years ago, two dropouts in this same room set out on their own journeys. Today, those paths merge. [image]
@omarwasm Omar Waseem on x
They haven't even been around for a year [image]
@benscharfstein Ben Scharfstein on x
**Meta has entered that chat** Manus isn't code directly but I'm increasingly feeling like there is no difference between a coding agent and a general agent (since code generalizes).
@levie Aaron Levie on x
There's never been an underlying substrate in tech that both improves in capability and drops in cost on a task-specific basis as rapidly as AI does. In the next year because of underlying model improvements, AI agents will: handle much longer running tasks; deal much better
@parker_lyman Parker Lyman on x
Manus is joining Meta to bring our leading agent to billions of people. Full story on our blog: https://manus.im/...
@deedydas Deedy on x
Meta just bought Manus for >$1B and it makes sense. ~8 Consumer AI apps hit $100M+ arr that aren't big labs: Perplexity: $20B ElevenLabs: $6.6B Lovable: $6.6B Replit: $3B+ Suno: $2.5B Gamma: $2.1B Character: $1B+ Manus: $500M Meta AI has ~no product. This was the cheapest, and …
@alexandr_wang Alexandr Wang on x
Also, MSL is hiring in Singapore! We already have some amazing researchers and engineers there, buoyed now by the 100-strong Manus team, and we're growing fast. Feel free to DM with a resumé if interested!
@andrewcurran_ Andrew Curran on x
I feel like I'm getting trolled here.
@peterfenton Peter Fenton on x
The manus team has forever raised the bar of product execution in the AI era, seeing this clearly and nurturing it motivates everything we do @benchmark. Heroic, intense, multi-theatre warrior against xenephopia — really a totality of venture partnership by @chetanp
@nathanclark_ Nathan Clark on x
Someone proactively remind @SenTomCotton that Singapore is a sovereign nation that's not part of China.
@sainingxie Saining Xie on x
this acquisition seriously feels like a fairytale moment! incredibly inspiring, and if you know the founders and have actually used the product, it feels completely inevitable. and finally, a good move from Zuck. big congrats to @Red_Xiao_ @peakji @hidecloud and the team.
@iruletheworldmo @iruletheworldmo on x
this is huge. manus is arguably the best tool for knowledge work and i'd expect with meta behind them things are going to level up.
@toddsaunders Todd Saunders on x
We will look back and this will be bigger for Meta than Instagram and What's App.
@benitoz Ben Pouladian on x
Wow didn't see this coming. This is Meta quietly buying agent IQ Manus wasn't a vibes hire. It's capability overhang → scaffolding → real agents. SOTA on Remote Labor Index. 100-person team Singapore hub This is how “chatbots” turn into labor 🤖 $meta getting serious [image]
@chasing_next Riley on x
nice - big win for meta. manus is hugely underrated. one of the few “agent” products that creates instant value for non-technical people without a big learning curve.
@brianzhan1 Brian Zhan on x
Most VCs thought Manus at $500m was a bubble, and yet it exited at several billion. This is an insightful piece on how to pick out the moonshot companies commoditizing frontier research amidst a sea of bubbly bets.
@chetanp Chetan Puttagunta on x
Manus was acquired by Meta. This remarkable group of people created a product that was the fastest ever to go $0 to $100M ARR and changed how consumers used AI to get things done. It was an extraordinary privilege for me and Benchmark to have invested in this incredible company…
@john_bailey John Bailey on x
Big gain for Meta. Manus gave many users their first real taste of autonomous AI agents that don't just answer questions but tackle complex workflows from start to finish. Now, with Manus joining Meta's AI ecosystem, that vision gets supercharged with Meta's scale, tools, and b…
@gregisenberg Greg Isenberg on x
Manus AI ($100M+ ARR in 8 months) is getting ACQUIRED by Meta Interesting...Meta is betting big on AI agents.
@officiallogank Logan Kilpatrick on x
@alexandr_wang ... Huge congrats to you all and the Manus team!
@manusai Manus on x
Manus is entering the next chapter: we're joining forces with Meta to take general agents to the next level. Full story on our blog: https://manus.im/...
@alexandr_wang Alexandr Wang on x
Fun fact: Manus is currently SOTA on the Remote Labor Index (RLI) benchmark that @scale_AI and @ai_risks released earlier this year. https://www.remotelabor.ai/
@iamaaronyang Aaron Yang on x
That was fast, felt like manus had just started to gain some real traction before getting acquired.
@karlbode.com Karl Bode on bluesky
what if there was a large company run by a charmless chode whose products stunk and couldn't innovate and spent most of of its time buying up smaller companies on the cheap only to routinely make those acquired products suck — wouldn't that be innovative and very businessy [emb…
@caseynewton Casey Newton on bluesky
Gang please don't use ChatGPT to write your acquisition announcement [quote: “This announcement is more than just a headline—it's validation of our pioneering work with General AI Agents."]
@hunterwalk.com @hunterwalk.com on bluesky
Hear that? It's the sound of every reporter pinging their sources trying to get the price on this one [embedded post]
@edzitron.com Ed Zitron on bluesky
The fact that they are not disclosing the amount suggests this was a fire sale. Uh oh! [embedded post]
r/LocalLLaMA r on reddit
Meta acquired Manus !!
r/singularity r on reddit
Meta acquires Manus
@caseynewton Casey Newton on bluesky
Deploying my Manus agent on Instagram with strict instructions to keep scrolling until it has an eating disorder [embedded post]
@headinthebox Erik Meijer on x
I left Meta because I made a bet that models were going to commoditized and the value would be in products on top of models, but MetaMate and GenAI were highly politicized sucking up all oxygen in the room. As always, I was right.
@henrysgao Henry Gao on x
META has just landed a devastating blow to China's AI strategy by taking over Manus. The message is unmistakable: only Chinese firms willing to uproot themselves entirely and leave China behind can access real capital, talent, and global scale. The exodus is coming.

Chronicles

Sources: Meta is buying Manus for $2B+; Manus was raising at a $2B valuation when Meta approached it; Manus CEO Xiao Hong will report to Meta COO Javier Olivan

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