Manus, an AI dark horse with a Chinese background, was acquired by Meta (META.US) or became Zuckerberg's first “powerful tool to return blood” to Zuckerberg's 600 billion AI infrastructure

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Meta Platforms (META.US) has agreed to acquire the technology and core team of Singaporean artificial intelligence startup Manus. This move will add a market-popular smart device product to the social media giant's commercialization layout driven by huge AI investments.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has listed AI as the company's number one task and is spending billions of dollars to recruit researchers, build data centers, and develop new models. Manus disclosed at the beginning of this year that annual recurring revenue has reached about US$125 million, providing intelligent services to enterprises through a subscription-based model — this commercialization path may become a key driver for Meta to accelerate the recovery of AI R&D costs. It is worth noting that the details of the financial terms of this cooperation between the two sides have not been disclosed to the outside world.

Manus's parent company was first established in China and then moved to Singapore. Earlier this year, the company was valued at nearly $500 million in a round of funding led by US venture capital firm Benchmark; at the time, Benchmark was questioned by lawmakers and other venture capitalists for supporting an AI company linked to China.

Manus launched the product at the beginning of this year. This AI agent can complete common tasks such as screening resumes, formulating travel routes, and analyzing stocks according to simple instructions. Meta, on the other hand, has an AI chatbot called Meta AI. In addition to AI glasses, it can also be used on social and communication platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Meta is investing heavily to compete with OpenAI, Alphabet's Google, and Microsoft in the AI competition. Zuckerberg promised to invest $600 billion over the next three years in US infrastructure projects, most of which are AI-related. The company has formed a high-cost research team and plans to launch a new, most advanced AI model next spring; this spending has also raised concerns among some investors that it will be difficult to turn into significant revenue in the short term.

Meta is only buying Manus' technology and leadership team, and has not revealed how the new team will be placed internally. At the beginning of this summer, Meta made a high-profile investment in the startup Scale AI, and Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang will provide Meta with AI infrastructure support in this partnership.

Meta said in a statement on Monday that it will continue to operate and sell Manus' services while integrating them into the company's existing products.