Meet Manus: Meta Adds Another AI Startup to Its Growing Empire

Meta has added another name to its growing list of AI acquisitions. This time, the company has acquired AI chatbot startup Manus, continuing its aggressive push toward what it openly calls AI "superintelligence." The deal was revealed this week and fits neatly into Meta's broader strategy to scale its AI capabilities fast, before competitors lock in their advantage.


So, what exactly did Meta buy? Manus is a company focused on building general AI agents designed to carry out complex, autonomous tasks. It positions its technology as an "action engine for life," aiming to extend what people and businesses can do by giving them AI-powered tools that handle everything from market research to coding and data analysis. In short, these bots don't just chat — they execute.

According to Meta, Manus has developed one of the most advanced general-purpose autonomous agents currently on the market. The company says it plans to continue operating and selling Manus as a service while also integrating its technology into Meta's own products. For now, Manus will exist under both brands, though history suggests the standalone branding may eventually fade into the Meta ecosystem.

Timing also matters here. Manus launched its first general AI agent earlier this year and is already operating at serious scale, having processed more than 147 trillion tokens and created over 80 million virtual computers for users around the world. Meta has made it clear that it wants to expand this service to even more businesses, hinting that this acquisition is less about consumer chat and more about enterprise AI.

That's a strategic move. Running AI at Meta's scale is expensive, and monetizing business-facing tools could be one of the clearest paths to making those costs worthwhile. While ChatGPT continues to dominate consumer AI — much to Meta's frustration — Manus could give Meta an entry point into deeper business integration, assuming companies are comfortable trusting Meta with their data.

This acquisition also isn't happening in isolation. Over the past year, Meta has picked up PlayAI, partnered with Midjourney, acquired Limitless, and signed multiple data deals with news organizations. All of it points to one thing: Meta is buying, partnering, and scaling as fast as possible to stay ahead in the AI race.

Whether this strategy pays off is still an open question. But if one thing's clear, it's that Meta isn't done making AI moves — and 2026 could bring even more.

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