Meta buys intelligent agent firm Manus: Here's what you need to know

? (?) 00:00.160

Meta closing out 2025 with an 11th-hour acquisition. Got a few of those in the tech space this week. The company announcing it is buying Mantis, a startup founded in China that builds AI agents. McKinsey Segalis has more in today's tech check segment, Mac. And it's interesting

? (?) 00:15.120

to see Meta outperforming too.

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 00:17.880

Yeah, it is. Investors are bullish on this and part of that is the fact that it's a deal that speaks directly to the pressure pressure Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is facing to show returns on the company's massive AI spending and one that straddle sells the increasingly

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 00:30.880

complicated US-China AI rivalry. So, Manis had a mini viral moment back in March. The company claimed that it outperformed OpenAI's deep research. People were calling it China's next deep seek moment. The K-Web was running up while the Mag 7 was selling off. Now, those trades

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 00:47.760

have reversed. But the talent and tech that spooked investors this spring, that's now inside of a US tech giant. No terms officially disclosed, but the deal reportedly values Manis at more than $2 billion, a big jump from the 500 million valuation when they raised this spring.

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 01:03.040

One analyst saying this deal has the makings of a future Instagram or WhatsApp style home run, adding that Agnetic AI plugs right into Meta's push to monetize SMB business tools, especially the surfaces that it offers internationally via WhatsApp. And from Silicon Valley, the

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 01:18.800

read on why Meta paid up is blunt. One VC telling me that Meta has no real AI products with traction. Manus, on the other hand, is a strong business. $125 million in annualized revenue continue by December, gaining 20% plus month uh 20% plus month over month, but struggling to

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 01:35.800

grow into something that could really IPO. So, this is Meta buying one of the only viable consumer AI app successes out there. Meta says Manus will stay stand alone for now, but the product will also get woven into its products over time. It is a big integration test for chief

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 01:51.920

AI officer Alex Wang, coming after four reorgs of his department in six months. As CEO Mark Zuckerberg races to make the spend pay off. Guys?

? (?) 02:02.440

Yeah, and Alex a product of a deal himself, of course, what they paid 14 billion for part of Scale AI, although that company's kind of what was left of it is sort of no longer. Um, I mean, are there more to come here, do we think? And, you know, do we have a sense in terms of

? (?) 02:19.080

how I mean, this company's growing so fast, McKenzie. I do wonder the impact it could have pretty quickly.

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 02:25.920

Well, I mean, to your earlier point, you spoke to Gilroy earlier about the fact that Meta has spent $30 billion dollars on a mix of talent acquisitions. 14 of that as you just noted to bring Alex in house. And we're still waiting to see a return on that. But Zuckerberg has the

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 02:39.680

voting power to be able to make those kinds of decisions. So as for whether more are coming, certainly yes. There's not been any sort of uh you know I mean in the last week alone we've seen three more deals from SoftBank from Nvidia really leaning into the fact that these

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 02:53.400

AquaHires are not being checked. And so in that kind of uh regulatory environment, why not lean in? And at roughly $2 billion. It's not even that big a purchase. And their SMB enterprise services are 10 billion annualized. And so if you can soup that up with an Agentic AI

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 03:10.800

offering, that's a really strong product bolt on.

? (?) 03:15.040

I mean, it also just it it increases the concentration risk, which I just keep saying, but as these, you know, as the as the big powerful ones get even bigger, even with these smaller acquisitions in the AI space, it creates a level of vulnerability, ultimately, for the market.

? (?) 03:29.200

If if we do see unravelling, like we saw little flashes of this year. And

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 03:34.240

when you think about that Mag 7 contingent, you've got Elon Musk, Jensen Wong, and then of course Mark Zuckerberg, which are these founder-led companies where they do have the voting share to be able to make these kinds of decisions without answering to a board of directors. So,

Mackenzie Sigalos (CNBC Business News) 03:47.840

certainly you are seeing some consolidation. I mean, just in the last week, as I mentioned, Nvidia buying Graco, a smaller AI chip company that gives them a real advantage in the memory space, which has been one of the hottest performing stock sectors in 20 Yeah,

? (?) 04:02.200

as you point out of course Zuckerberg with 61% I think of the vote lets him do what he wants. By the way, shareholders applauding it. I mean the increase in market cap is some $18 billion dollars today for 2 billion that's been spent. McKenzie, thank you.