Manus plans to raise $500 million, valuation may rise to $4 billion

动察 Beating AI News Flash: According to Bloomberg, AI startup Manus is planning to complete a funding round of approximately $500 million, with a valuation expected to reach $4 billion, doubling its previous $2 billion valuation. People familiar with the matter said the round is nearing completion, but the deal is still at an early stage, and specific terms and the investor list may change.

This is Manus's first funding round since its spin-off from Meta. Previously, Meta had agreed to acquire Manus for approximately $2 billion, but the deal was blocked by Chinese regulators, after which the two parties completed an operational spin-off and ceased data sharing. Manus resumed independent operations this month, and the founding team will continue to lead the company's development.

Manus's existing investors include Tencent, HSG, and ZhenFund. If this funding round is completed at a $4 billion valuation, Manus will become one of the highest-valued AI Agent companies in China. Bloomberg said the company may in the future follow the example of AI companies such as Moonshot AI and seek a listing in Hong Kong.

However, Manus also faces competitive pressure from the rapid improvement of foundation model capabilities, including models such as Kimi and Claude that are enhancing desktop task-processing abilities, while Manus itself has not trained a foundation model from scratch.