Meta Platforms has officially announced the acquisition of Manus, the viral AI agent startup that has dominated industry headlines for its ability to function as an autonomous "digital employee." The deal, reportedly valued at over $2 billion, marks Mark Zuckerberg’s most aggressive move yet to pivot from generative chatbots toward agentic AI. By folding Manus into its ecosystem, Meta aims to transition Meta AI from a simple conversational tool into a proactive assistant capable of executing complex, multi-step tasks—such as booking travel, conducting deep market research, and managing professional workflows—across WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.

The acquisition comes after a meteoric year for Manus. Originally founded as Butterfly Effect, the startup became the fastest-growing AI company in history, reportedly reaching $100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) just eight months after its public launch. Unlike standard LLMs that simply predict the next word in a sentence, Manus gained fame for its "General Purpose Agent" capabilities, which allow it to navigate the open web, interact with various software interfaces, and solve problems with minimal human intervention. This "agentic" architecture is precisely what Meta seeks to scale to its three billion daily active users.

During a brief press briefing, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that the future of the company lies in "digital employees" that can assist small businesses and individuals alike. "We don't just want an AI that can write a poem; we want an AI that can run your shop, handle your customer service, and organize your life," Zuckerberg stated. The integration of Manus is expected to provide the "brain" for these agents, leveraging Meta’s massive compute clusters to make autonomous task-execution faster and more reliable than ever before.

Strategic analysts suggest the move is a direct defensive strike against OpenAI and Google. With OpenAI recently unveiling its "Operator" agent and Google's Gemini increasingly focusing on "Project Jarvis," Meta was at risk of falling behind in the race for the "Action-Oriented Web." By acquiring Manus, Meta not only gains industry-leading agentic technology but also secures a massive data pipeline. In 2025 alone, Manus processed an estimated 147 trillion tokens, providing Meta with invaluable insights into how humans delegate tasks to machines.

Despite the excitement, the deal is expected to face intense regulatory scrutiny from the FTC and European antitrust authorities. Critics argue that Meta’s acquisition of a leading independent AI startup could stifle competition in the nascent agent market. However, Meta has hinted at a "hybrid open-source" approach, suggesting that while the core Manus agent will be integrated into its proprietary apps, some of the underlying research and frameworks may be contributed back to the Llama community to foster an ecosystem of third-party agents.

For current Manus subscribers, the transition is expected to be seamless. Meta confirmed it will continue to operate the standalone Manus app and web interface for the foreseeable future, while simultaneously rolling out "Agentic Mode" for Meta AI in select regions. This feature will allow users to give high-level commands, like "Analyze my business competitors and create a 10-slide summary," which the Manus-powered engine will then complete by browsing the web and using productivity tools autonomously.

As the deal closes, Manus CEO Xiao Hong and the core engineering team are slated to join Meta’s "FAIR" (Fundamental AI Research) and product teams. The union marks a symbolic end to the era of "chatting" with AI and the beginning of the era of "doing" with AI. If successful, Meta’s latest acquisition could turn every smartphone into a personalized command center, where digital employees work around the clock to handle the friction of modern digital life.