Name: Meta buys intelligent agent firm Manus: Heres what you need to know
Uploaded: 2025-12-30T17:35:17.279Z
Duration: 4 min 15 s
Description: CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos reports on Meta’s acquisition of intelligent-agent firm Manus.

CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos reports on Meta’s acquisition of intelligent-agent firm Manus.

Meta has announced the acquisition of Manus, a startup specializing in AI agents and founded in China, for a reported value exceeding $2 billion. This move is part of Meta's ongoing efforts to demonstrate returns on its significant AI investments and comes amid increasing competition between U.S. and Chinese AI firms.

Manus, which gained attention earlier in the year for its technological achievements, will initially remain a standalone entity but is expected to be integrated into Meta's product suite over time. The acquisition is seen as a strategic step to enhance Meta's business tools, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises, and has been met with a positive response from investors.

Meta buys intelligent agent firm Manus: Here's what you need to know

Metta closing out 2025 with an 11th hour acquisition. Got a few of those in the tech space this week. The company announcing it is buying Manus a startup founded in China that builds A.I. agents. Mackenzie Sagalas has more in today's tech check segment. And it's interesting to see Metta outperforming too. Yeah it is. Investors are bullish on this. And part of that is the fact that it's a deal that speaks directly to the pressure pressure. Metta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is facing to show returns on the company's massive A.I. spending and one that straddles the increasingly complicated U.S. China A.I. rivalry. So Manus had a mini viral moment back in March. The company claimed that it outperformed opening eyes deep research. People were calling it China's next deep seek moment. The K-Web was running up while the Mag 7 was selling off. Now those trades have reversed. But the talent and tech that spooked investors this spring that's now inside of a U.S. tech giant. No terms officially disclosed but the deal reportedly values Manus at more than two billion dollars. A big jump from the five hundred million valuation when they raised this spring. One analyst saying this deal has the makings of a future Instagram or WhatsApp style home run. Adding that agentic A.I. plugs right into Metta's push to monetize SMB business tools especially the services that it offers internationally via WhatsApp and from Silicon Valley. The read on why Metta paid up is blunt. One VC telling me that Metta has no real A.I. products with traction. Manus on the other hand is a strong business. One hundred and twenty five million in annualized revenue by December gaining 20 percent plus 20 percent plus month over month but struggling to grow into something that could really IPO. So this is Metta buying one of the only viable consumer A.I. app successes out there. Metta says Manus will stay stand alone for now but the product will also get woven into its products over time. It is a big integration test for chief A.I. officer Alex Wang coming after four reorgs of his department in six months as CEO Mark Zuckerberg races to make the spend pay off guys. Yeah. And Alex a product of a deal himself of course what they paid 14 billion for part of scale A.I. although that company is kind of what was left of it is sort of no longer. I mean are there more to come here do we think. And you know do we have a sense in terms of how I mean this company is growing so fast. Mackenzie I do wonder the impact it could have pretty quickly. Well I mean to your earlier point you spoke to Gil Laurier earlier about the fact that Metta has spent 30 billion dollars on a mix of talent acquisitions 14 of that as you just noted to bring Alex in house. And we're still waiting to see return on that. But Zuckerberg has the voting power to be able to make those kinds of decisions. So as for whether more are coming certainly yes there's not been any sort of you know I mean in the last week alone we've seen three more deals from SoftBank from NVIDIA really leaning into the fact that these aqua hires are not being checked. And so in that kind of regulatory environment why not lean in at roughly two billion dollars. It's not even that big a purchase. And there are SMB enterprise services are 10 billion annualized. And so if you can soup that up with an energetic offering that's a really strong product to bolt on. I mean it also just it increases the concentration risk which I just keep saying. But as these you know as the as the big powerful ones get even bigger even with these smaller acquisitions in the A.I. space it creates a level of vulnerability ultimately for the market. If we do see unraveling like we saw little flashes of this year. And when you think about that mag seven contingent you've got Elon Musk and Jensen Wong and then of course Mark Zuckerberg which are these founder led companies where they do have the voting share to be able to make these kinds of decisions without answering to a board of directors. So certainly you are seeing some consolidation. I mean just in the last week as I mentioned NVIDIA buying Grock a smaller chip company that gives them a real advantage in the memory space which has been one of the hottest performing stock sectors in 2025. Yeah. As you point out of course Zuckerberg with 61 percent I think of the vote lets him do what he wants. By the way shareholders applauding it. I mean the increase in market cap is some 18 billion dollars today for two billion that's been spent. McKenzie thank you.

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