Chinese AI lab Manus announced Thursday it raised more than $500 million in fresh capital from Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, marking its first funding round since Chinese authorities blocked its $2 billion acquisition by Meta earlier this year.
Existing investors Tencent, HSG—formerly Sequoia China—and ZhenFund also participated. Manus did not disclose its post-money valuation, though the company was reportedly in discussions last month to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation.
Manus, a subsidiary of Butterfly Effect, had agreed to Meta's $2 billion acquisition in December 2025 when it was generating over $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Chinese authorities ordered the company to unwind the deal in April 2026, citing concerns about the loss of AI talent and researchers to Western companies. Manus resumed independent operations in August 2026 after unwinding the acquisition and was required to delete some user data as part of the separation.
The company plans to continue hiring domestically and internationally, and is reportedly considering a public listing in Hong Kong.
Manus develops AI agents and productivity tools that compete with Cursor, Lovable, and Replit. The company recently launched Manus 2.0 with a new architecture and expanded capabilities, and introduced Cue, a standalone application that provides autonomous agents with email addresses, phone numbers, digital wallets, and computer access. Cue agents can communicate, manage tasks across services, and execute payments within user-set limits.
