Original Investors Buy Back Singapore AI Startup Manus From Meta for US$2 Billion

Singapore-based AI agent startup Manus is heading back to its original ownership. Early Chinese investors — HSG, ZhenFund, and Tencent — are buying the company back from Meta for US$2 billion, matching the price the Facebook parent paid when it acquired the firm in December 2025.

The buyback was triggered by a regulatory directive out of Beijing in April that tightened oversight of US investments in advanced Chinese AI startups. Meta responded by operationally separating from Manus and halting data sharing between the two companies, paving the way for an unwind.

Manus specialises in AI agents that autonomously execute complex tasks with minimal human input, a category that has become one of the hottest segments in enterprise AI. The company's annualised revenue run rate has climbed sharply from US$100 million at the time of Meta's acquisition to between US$400 million and US$500 million in recent weeks — a reflection of soaring enterprise demand for agentic AI solutions, particularly across Asia's fast-growing markets.

Beyond the buyback, Manus is exploring a restructuring into a China-incorporated joint venture, which could pave the way for a future listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Benchmark, a prominent Silicon Valley VC, is sitting out the buyback process.

Why it matters for Singapore: Manus was one of Singapore's highest-profile AI startups, and this buyback underscores how geopolitical cross-currents are reshaping the city-state's role in AI venture ownership. Singapore remains the operational base, but the restructuring into a China-incorporated entity signals that regulatory pressure from Beijing is pushing AI startups backed by Chinese capital to reconsider their domicile. For Singapore's AI ecosystem, it raises questions about how the country balances its open innovation environment with the growing US-China tech decoupling.