Manus is in talks to raise $500M at a $4B valuation as it rebuilds as an independent company, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Chinese AI agent developer spent most of this year untangling itself from Meta, which agreed to buy it for $2B in December before Beijing blocked the deal over export-control and foreign-investment concerns. Early backers helped Manus buy back its shares at roughly $2B.
IDG Capital, Boyu Capital and battery maker CATL are among the prospective new investors, with existing supporters Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund expected to follow on. Manus is also weighing a restructuring to prepare for a Hong Kong IPO.
The company went viral after demoing its agent, which handles chat, app and website builds, design work and video. It moved staff to Singapore in mid-2025 and was pulling in more than $100M of annual recurring revenue when the Meta agreement was signed.
The separation has been messy. Manus told users in August to export and back up their own data because it had to delete material generated after the acquisition to satisfy rules in specific jurisdictions. This month it confirmed it is running independently again, with its founding team still in charge.
