Meta acquires Manus AI-agent startup: boosts personal AI

Meta Platforms acquired Manus, a startup that builds autonomous, general-purpose AI agents, in a deal announced Dec. 29–30, 2025. Manus confirmed the sale in a company blog post on Dec. 29. Reuters, TechCrunch and the Washington Post reported the price topped $2 billion. (Reporting and Manus's post are dated Dec. 29–30, 2025.)

Manus's agent software chains tasks, calls tools and APIs, and executes multi-step workflows without continuous human prompts. Meta says the acquisition will speed delivery of agent-driven features across its apps. Multiple outlets report Meta plans to integrate Manus capabilities into consumer products, including WhatsApp, and its broader personal-AI initiatives led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

For engineers and platform teams, the deal signals Meta's shift from standalone models to agent-enabled products and tighter stack integration. Expect accelerated hiring and platform work to add runtimes, safety tooling, and API-level agent controls. Product rollouts will likely be staged across messaging and assistant experiences over the coming quarters.

Why It Matters

• Prepare for new agent runtimes and SDKs as Meta integrates Manus tech into messaging and assistant products.
• Expect faster deployment of end-to-end agent features—tooling, credentials, and connectors—which will change integration points for enterprise and consumer developers.
• Security and policy teams should review access controls: agents that call APIs and handle user data require scoped credentials, stricter permissions, and continuous runtime monitoring.