We talked to frontline AI entrepreneurs about Manus being acquired by Meta.
Nine months ago, the startup Manus, touted as the world's first general AI agent, caused a sensation in the Chinese tech circle and beyond. Now, it has once again grabbed the spotlight.
On December 29, 2025, tech giant Meta announced its plan to acquire Manus to further enhance its ecological layout for AI consumer and enterprise products. On the same day, Manus issued a statement, saying that this acquisition recognized the company's work in the field of general AI agents. It also emphasized that the company would continue its independent operations in Singapore, offering products and subscription services to users through its app and website.
According to LatePost, Meta spent billions of dollars on the acquisition of Manus, making it Meta's third - largest acquisition to date, after the purchases of WhatsApp ($19 billion) and Scale AI ($15 billion). Xiao Hong, the founder of Manus, will serve as Meta's vice - president.
Manus, a general AI agent, was officially launched on March 5, 2025. It doesn't have its own large - scale AI model but leverages third - party models to provide full - process automation capabilities from task planning to execution. It can independently handle complex tasks such as report writing, data analysis, and cross - platform operations.
It took Manus only nine months from its official product launch in March 2025 to being acquired by Meta at a high price. It is also the first all - Chinese startup team to be acquired by a U.S. tech giant. Dai Yusen, the managing partner of ZhenFund (one of Manus' investors), commented, "(Manus) competes fairly on the global stage without relying on connections or seniority, achieving what our previous generation of entrepreneurs couldn't do or even dared to think about."
The year 2025 is known as the "Year of AI Agents," and the wave of AI agent startups has swept across various industries. After the news of Manus' acquisition by Meta spread, we talked to some top AI agent entrepreneurs in China.
01
"The Best Way Out"
Many AI agent entrepreneurs believe that being acquired by Meta is the best outcome for Manus.
In the view of Bruce Yang, the founder of Agnes AI, Manus has added a new exit path for Chinese entrepreneurs. That is, Chinese entrepreneurs can be acquired by leading U.S. internet companies as long as their products target overseas markets and are globally competitive.
Bruce Yang thinks that Manus will bring a new wave of popularity to general AI agents. His startup, Agnes AI, is a consumer - oriented AI agent application. Similar to Manus, it belongs to the general AI agent category and has expanded into the AI social field. Currently, it has 4.5 million registered users, over 200,000 daily active users, and a payment rate as high as 5%, exceeding the average payment rate in the AI application product market.
Jiang Chengchi, the co - founder and CMO of Bonjour!, told Caijing that the acquisition of Manus is an exciting event for AI startup teams.
"Most application - layer entrepreneurs would be satisfied with an outcome like Manus'. When we start a business, we are prepared for failure. Although we don't start a business with the sole purpose of being acquired by a large company, being acquired by a company like Meta with such a large sum of money is an acceptable solution psychologically," Jiang Chengchi said.
He believes that after the Manus case, many U.S. companies will surely pay attention to Chinese startups, and more small businesses will gain favor. "The acquisition amount seems huge to us, but in the books of large companies, this deal might be very cost - effective," he added.
Bonjour! is a new - type social business card network targeting Generation Z, dedicated to providing infrastructure for creators in terms of identity, connection, and collaboration. It currently has 120,000 users and also has plans to expand overseas.
However, some people lament that it is extremely difficult for independent startups to sustain their operations. Wang Baoping, the founder of the AI agent application YouMind, said that general AI agents are ultimately a game for tech giants. If Manus hadn't been acquired, its future would have been very difficult.
"Manus' dream couldn't support the dream of an independent company," Wang Baoping sighed.
02
Why Is It Worth So Much?
There is a common question about this acquisition: Why is a "wrapper" worth so much money?
Since its inception, Manus has been associated with the "wrapper theory," which means that it doesn't have its own model but only uses the capabilities of other large models. The industry generally believes that general AI agents that "wrap large models" are easily "swallowed" by large - model manufacturers.
Liu Yuan, a partner at ZhenFund, said that although Manus doesn't conduct model training, it was the first to realize that in this era, a deep understanding of users and excellent product engineering capabilities are highly scarce. Liu Yuan added that these capabilities are often not regarded as "core technologies" but are decisive factors for a company and a product to succeed.
On December 17, Manus announced that eight months after its product launch, its Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) had exceeded $100 million, making it the fastest - growing startup globally to reach this milestone from zero revenue. Manus also claimed to have maintained a monthly growth rate of over 20%. In eight months, Manus AI has processed 147 trillion tokens. For reference, the daily token usage of ByteDance's large model Doubao is currently 50 trillion.
Yi Bo, the founder of the AI application startup Yichuang Technology, said that since Manus was launched in March, neither large tech companies nor startups have been able to produce products at the same level as Manus.
"In the field of general AI agents, Manus is the first, GenSpark is the second, and there is no consensus on who the third is. Some large - model manufacturers have launched similar products, but their performance is far inferior to Manus. Many other manufacturers haven't even launched such products," Yi Bo added.
Yi Bo's AI agent startup project can be simply regarded as an open - source version of Manus. He said that because his startup direction is the same as Manus', he knows how difficult it is to catch up with Manus. It's not just about "wrapping" a model; it requires strong product engineering capabilities. Manus' success proves that Chinese people are very capable in AI application engineering and product development.
Another question is: Why did Meta acquire Manus?
Some entrepreneurs directly told Caijing that "Meta has gone crazy." More respondents believe that Meta's move is to relieve its anxiety because among existing U.S. tech giants, only Meta doesn't have a prominent AI model or application.
This acquisition even made Wang Baoping think of Baidu's acquisition of 91 Mobile Assistant. "Back then, Baidu was anxious about getting a ticket in the mobile era. Now, Meta is anxious about breaking through in AI. I hope history won't repeat itself and a different story will unfold," he said.
Bruce Yang believes that Meta could have developed a similar product, but it bought Manus to save time.
Yi Bo thinks that with Meta's financial support, Manus will expand rapidly. However, other large companies will surely launch competing products, which will force them to invest in AI agents. This also means that for startups, the opportunities in the general AI agent field overseas will be further squeezed, and entrepreneurs need to think more about what the next - generation AI products will look like.
03
Re - examining the Globalization of Chinese AI Companies
Manus' successful "landing" has made entrepreneurs re - evaluate its controversial move of "relocating." In July 2025, Manus moved its headquarters from China to Singapore. More than 40 core technical staff moved to Singapore, while the remaining about 80 employees were laid off.
This move attracted wide attention in the market. Manus responded that "based on considerations of operational efficiency, we adjusted some business teams. In the future, we will continue to focus on core businesses and improve overall operational efficiency." More people speculated that Manus wanted to avoid U.S. regulations and restrictions on Chinese startups. Moving its headquarters to Singapore was a choice to ensure that financing, global expansion, and technical cooperation wouldn't be restricted by Sino - U.S. relations.
The contradiction of "de - Chineseization" often appears in the financing process of AI agent entrepreneurs. An AI agent entrepreneur once contacted a Silicon Valley investment institution. The institution's biggest concern was the impact of Sino - U.S. relations and hoped that they would restructure as an overseas company with U.S. - citizen partners in the team.
The acquisition of Manus by Meta has also shaken his plan for the company's structure. Originally, he planned to set up the company's main body in Hong Kong, China, to solve problems such as US - dollar payment and receipt. Now, he has decided to follow Manus' example and move the main body to Singapore. In his view, Manus is the first Chinese AI company to enter the international market and complete a deal from Singapore, and it has paved the way for globalization. "If it hadn't moved to Singapore, Meta wouldn't have acquired it," he said.
An investor told Caijing, "In the future, the end - game for AI agent entrepreneurs will be not AGI but Meta." ZhenFund's layout in the Manus project is regarded as a "good start" in the VC circle. The acquisition of Manus by Meta has verified a viable investment model: sending Chinese AI projects overseas and ultimately seeking acquisition by overseas giants as an exit strategy.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Semi - Ripe Finance" (ID: Banshu - Caijing). Authors: Zhou Yuan, Yang Liyun, Huang Siyun. Editor: Mark. Republished by 36Kr with permission.