Inside Meta’s acquisition of Manus AI: Revenue, features and the race against ChatGPT
Meta announced on Monday that it will acquire Manus, a startup specializing in artificial intelligence. The tech giant is rapidly expanding its platforms to incorporate advanced artificial intelligence.
Although financial terms of the transaction were not publicly disclosed, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters the deal could value the Singapore-based firm at $2-3 billion.
This acquisition comes at a time when many technology giants are racing to develop and implement advanced AI technologies aimed at gaining an advantage in the rapidly evolving AI environment.
As Meta battles fierce industry competition, the company is making strategic investments in artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, Facebook’s parent company invested in Scale AI, a data labeling startup valued at $29 billion, and also hired its 28-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang.
Can this startup’s chatbot compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT?
Founded in China, Manus went viral earlier this year after launching a program on X (formerly Twitter) that it calls the world’s first general AI agent, one that can make decisions and do things on its own, so it needs far less guidance than AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek.
These capabilities have led commentators and tech enthusiasts to dub it China’s next DeepSeek, and it has even received praise from Chinese state television. Reuters reported.
Manus, whose services are not available in China, claims that its AI agent outperforms OpenAI’s DeepResearch. The company said it plans to operate and sell Meta’s Manus service and integrate it into consumer and business products, including Meta AI.
Why is Manus a hot topic in Silicon Valley?
Manus has been making waves in Silicon Valley since its launch last spring, with a demo video showing the AI agent performing tasks like screening job candidates, planning vacations, and analyzing stock portfolios. TechCrunch.
Meta told the news outlet that Manus will continue to operate independently, while the startup’s AI agents will be integrated into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as Meta AI, Meta’s existing chatbot that is already available to users.
Manus also recently announced that it has millions of users and generates over $100 million in annual recurring revenue from monthly and annual subscribers.
This is important to Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, because it is a revenue-generating AI product; This is crucial at a time when investors are worried about Meta’s $60 billion investment in data centers and the broader tech industry’s costly AI development. TechCrunch.
