The tech giant arms race has escalated again. Meta just announced the acquisition of the Chinese AI agency startup Manus, with a bid exceeding $1 billion, causing a ripple effect.

Deedy, a partner at Menlo Ventures, commented quite straightforwardly: "Compared to AI giants like Perplexity or ElevenLabs, which are valued in the tens of billions to hundreds of billions, this acquisition is the most cost-effective and on-target choice." The implication being—spend less to achieve more.

What is Manus's background? It is a Singaporean AI company under Beijing Butterfly Effect Technology. Earlier this year, it completed a $500 million funding round led by American venture capital firm Benchmark. In terms of funding speed and capital favorability, this company is indeed impressive.

What truly attracts Meta? Product capability. Manus's enterprise-level AI Agent product can automatically handle repetitive tasks such as resume screening, itinerary planning, and data analysis, without the need for manual step-by-step guidance—this is exactly the urgent need for enterprise AI deployment.

The key is that Manus has already established a viable business model. With an annualized revenue of $125 million, it means this is not a burn-to-grow project, but a business with real income. For Meta, eager to turn AI into tangible profits, this is a perfect target to fill the application layer's shortcoming.