The deal is sure to turn heads too. Manus and its parent company Butterfly Effect are now based in Singapore but were founded in China - a country with a fraught relationship to the U.S tech industry - and maintain operations there. Facebook's parent company will reportedly pay more than $2 billion to acquire the startup, which it hopes will bolster its own lagging AI capabilities.
Meta Platforms ( NASDAQ:META ) has gone all-in on artificial intelligence (AI), releasing open-source models like Llama, building massive data centers, and integrating AI features across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other products. The company aims to lead in AI development and deployment to billions of users. However, despite its far-flung ambitions, there was a big hole in its ambitions: a proven, autonomous AI agent capable of independently executing complex real-world tasks for consumers and businesses. However, Meta just filled the gap with $2 billion plug.