Meta to acquire startup Manus, adding agents to bolster AI bet
(Bloomberg/Kurt Wagner) — Meta Platforms Inc. has agreed to acquire Singapore-based AI startup Manus, adding a popular artificial intelligence agent as the social-media company works to build a business around its massive AI investment.
Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has made AI his company’s top priority, and is spending billions to hire researchers, build data centers and develop new models. Manus, which had an annual revenue run rate of $125 million earlier this year, sells an AI agent to businesses via a subscription service, which could give Meta a more immediate return on some of its AI investment. No financial terms were disclosed.
The parent company behind Manus, which was founded in China before moving to Singapore, raised money earlier this year at close to a $500 million valuation in an investment round led by US venture capital firm Benchmark. Benchmark was criticized at the time by lawmakers and other venture investors for backing an AI company with ties to China.
Manus released its product earlier this year, an AI agent that can complete a handful of general tasks, including screening resumes, creating trip itineraries and analyzing stocks in response to basic instructions. Meta has an AI chatbot, Meta AI, which is available through the company’s social media and messaging platforms — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — in addition to its AI glasses.
Meta is spending aggressively to compete in the AI race against rivals like OpenAI, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft Corp. Zuckerberg has pledged to spend $600 billion on US infrastructure projects over the next three years, many of them expected to be AI-related. The company has hired an expensive team of researchers to develop a new state-of-the-art AI model it plans to debut next spring, and has faced some skepticism from investors who worry that Meta’s spending won’t result in meaningful revenue any time soon.
Meta is acquiring the technology and leadership group from Manus, though the company’s didn’t say where the new team will sit within the organization. The company’s Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, joined Meta earlier this summer as part of a high-profile investment into his startup, Scale AI.
Meta, in a statement Monday, said it will continue to operate and sell Manus’ service as well as integrate it into the company’s products.
(Updates with background on Manus and Meta beginning in the third paragraph.)
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