Manus seeks $4B valuation in new $500M fundraise as it resumes independent ops

Chinese AI startup Manus, which earlier this twelvemonth had to break disconnected a merger with Meta, is successful discussions to rise $500 cardinal astatine a $4 cardinal valuation present that it has resumed operations arsenic an autarkic company, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.

Potential investors successful the circular see IDG Capital, Boyu Capital, artillery shaper Contemporary Amperex Technology, arsenic good arsenic existing backers Tencent, HSG and Zhenfund, the Journal reported. Manus is besides said to beryllium considering a restructuring workout to hole for an IPO successful Hong Kong.

Manus, which went viral pursuing a demo of its AI cause past year, relocated its unit to Singapore successful mid-2025 earlier announcing a $2 cardinal acquisition woody with Meta that December. The startup was said to beryllium pulling successful yearly recurring gross of implicit $100 cardinal astatine the time.

However, intensifying worries successful China implicit losing AI endowment and researchers to the West culminated successful Beijing blocking the deal, citing imaginable violations of export controls and overseas concern rules.

Manus has since been untangling itself from the American societal media giant, and its aboriginal investors and backers person reportedly helped the institution bargain backmost its shares astatine a valuation of astir $2 billion.

As portion of its separation from Meta, the institution told its users this August that they would person to export and backmost up their ain information due to the fact that it had to delete information generated pursuing Meta’s acquisition to “comply with regulatory requirements successful circumstantial jurisdictions.”

The institution this period said it has resumed autarkic operations, and that its founding squad volition proceed to pb it.

Manus makes AI products and agents that are beauteous akin to what companies similar OpenAI, Lovable and Replit offer. It offers a chatbot and vibe-coding tools to fto users physique apps, websites, make designs and presentations, make video, a browser assistant, and more.

Manus did not instantly instrumentality a petition for comment.