2025 was a banner year for Manus, the artificial intelligence company whose roots lie in China. In March, the debut of its AI agent, Manus AI, was hailed as a “second DeepSeek moment.” A month later, it landed a $75 million funding round led by U.S. venture capital firm Benchmark. By the end of the year, Meta had announced a multibillion dollar deal to join forces with the company.
The Ministry of Commerce's response to a question about Manus and Meta, January 8, 2026. Credit: MOFCOM
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