Meta opens new tab said on yesterday it would acquire Chinese-founded artificial intelligence startup Manus, as the technology giant accelerates efforts to integrate advanced AI across its platforms.

Financial terms of the transaction were not released, but a source with direct knowledge of the matter said the deal values the Singapore-based firm at between $2 billion and $3 billion.

Manus went viral early this year on X after it released what it claimed was the world's first general AI agent, capable of making decisions and executing tasks autonomously, with much less prompting required than AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek.
That drove commentators to call it China's next DeepSeek, and it was cheered by Chinese state television. The company months later moved its headquarters from China to Singapore, joining a wave of other Chinese companies that have done so to curb risks from U.S.-China tensions.

"Scrutiny is almost guaranteed; anything with Chinese roots and 'AI' in the headline now triggers Washington's reflexes," said Jeremy Goldman, senior director at Emarketer.