Meta has acquired an AI startup called Manus — known for custom research and website building agents — in a deal worth more than $2 billion, according toThe Wall Street Journal. It is reportedly one of the largest acquisitions involving a startup nurtured in China’s AI ecosystem.

Manus arrived in March 2025, shortly after another AI startup in China, DeepSeek appeared on the scene. The company (called Butterfly Effect at the time) originally described it as “the first general AI agent” that can perform complex tasks autonomously, instead of just generating ideas. It draws from several third-party models, notably Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Alibaba’s Qwen versions.

Manus is designed to automate certain tasks, such as market research, coding, sales data analysis and website cloning and creation. (However, a skeptic it is called “a product diabolically optimized for influencers, that’s why it exploded.”) The company claims that Manu “already serves the daily needs of millions of users and businesses” and has an annual average revenue of more than $100 million just eight months after launch.

Manus laid off most of its employees in Beijing this summer before moving its headquarters to Singapore in an effort to expand globally. The company was reportedly seeking a round of funding worth $2 billion when it was approached by Meta. “Joining Meta allows us to build a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing how Manus works or how decisions are made,” said Manus CEO Xiao Hong in a company news release.