Manus

AI Agents · China Tech · Venture Funding

Funding

Manus reportedly seeks $500M raise at $4B valuation after Meta split

The reversal shows Beijing now treats leading AI agent makers as strategic assets too valuable to hand to foreign owners.

• Manus is in talks to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation, its first fundraising since Beijing forced Meta to unwind its acquisition of the startup, according to Bloomberg.
• Manus builds general-purpose AI agents that run in a sandbox environment to automate multi-step desktop tasks for users worldwide.
• Meta agreed in December to buy Manus at roughly a $2 billion valuation after its revenue topped $100 million annualized, but China's NDRC blocked the deal in April and the operational split was finalized in May.
• Manus's founders and existing backers Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund bought back shares from Meta at the same $2 billion valuation, with Tencent absorbing Benchmark's stake to become the largest outside shareholder.
• A $4 billion valuation would make Manus China's most valuable AI-agent startup, ahead of rival Evoken, which is separately raising money at about a $3 billion valuation.
• With independence restored, Manus could pursue a Hong Kong public listing as it builds out its agentic AI platform for global users.
• The forced unwind of a completed cross-border AI acquisition is an unusually direct move by Chinese regulators to keep frontier AI technology and talent from transferring abroad.
• Manus's rebound underscores how geopolitical scrutiny is reshaping AI dealmaking, forcing Chinese startups to raise capital domestically rather than sell to US tech giants.