Manus Cancels $2 B Meta Sale and Restores Independent Operation

Manus issued a public letter stating that it will no longer be sold to Meta and will resume independent company operations. To comply with regulatory requirements, all data generated after December 29 2025 must be reset and migrated, with a short migration window requiring users to manually back up their data before 8 am Singapore time on August 23 and re‑upload after the service is relaunched on August 25.

The company’s founder, Xiao Hong, previously built successful AI assistants and, in March 2025, launched what was billed as the world’s first general‑purpose AI agent called Manus, which could spin up virtual machines in the cloud to research, code, and generate presentations. The launch attracted over ten million visits in four hours, causing server outages, and invitation codes were reportedly sold for up to ¥50,000 each.

Following a period of technical scrutiny, high token costs, and traffic decline, Manus decided to move its operations to Singapore. By the end of 2024, its annual recurring revenue (ARR) surpassed $100 million, setting a record for rapid growth among global startups. Meta then completed a $2 billion acquisition on December 30, 2024, integrating Xiao Hong as a senior executive.

However, Chinese regulators intensified scrutiny in April 2025, leading to stricter review of the transaction and a forced separation of business, personnel, and data in June 2025. The split was completed, and Manus now operates independently again. Recent reports claim its mid‑year annualized revenue has reached $400‑500 million, a 4‑5× increase from the $100 million ARR at the time of the Meta deal.

Official announcement: https://manus.im/zh-cn/blog/a-note-to-our-users