On July 11, it was reported that Tencent was negotiating to become the largest shareholder of Manus, a general AI agent company. According to the news, a Chinese capital group led by Tencent repurchased all the shares of Manus from Meta at a valuation of approximately US$2 billion. A reporter from Nandu N Video asked Tencent for confirmation, but as of press time, Tencent had not responded. Another person familiar with the matter revealed to Nandu reporters that after this transaction, Tencent will still maintain its minority shareholder status, but will not hold a controlling stake.
In March 2025, a general AI Agent product called Manus became popular on the Chinese Internet overnight with a demonstration video. The invitation code was sold to 100,000 yuan each, and "asking for Manus invitation code" became a phenomenon on social media.
According to the cases disclosed on the official website at the time, Manus was able to independently think, plan and execute complex tasks and directly deliver complete results. Manus announced in December 2025 that its ARR (annualized revenue) had exceeded $100 million. Currently logged in to the Manus official website, the webpage shows: Manus is not available in your region.
Public information shows that Manus is an intelligent product launched by the start-up company BUTTERFLY EFFECT. Beijing Butterfly Effect Technology Co., Ltd., a domestic affiliate of Butterfly Effect, was established on April 20, 2022. At that time, both the shareholder and legal representative were Xiao Hong, a serial entrepreneur born in the 1990s.
According to Tianyancha, Butterfly Effect Company has completed a total of 4 rounds of financing. In July 2022, Zhen Fund invested in the seed round, with a post-investment valuation of US$14 million; in August 2023, Zhen Fund entered the angel round again, with a post-investment valuation of US$50 million; in December 2024, Sequoia China, Tencent, Zhen Fund, etc. began to participate in the A round, with a post-investment valuation of US$85 million; in April 2025, Benchmark Capital, ZhenFund, Sequoia China, Tencent and other leading Chinese and American VC funds and technology company entrepreneurs participated in the B round, with a post-investment valuation of nearly US$500 million. Among them, Tencent participated in two rounds, Series A and Series B.
On December 30 last year, Manus announced on its official website that "Manus will soon join Meta." At the same time, Manus will continue to provide products and subscription services to users through the App and website, and will continue to operate in Singapore. According to late reports at the time, the Meta acquisition amounted to billions of dollars.
At that time, Liu Yuan, a partner of Manus investor ZhenFund, wrote that Meta founder Zuckerberg was a long-term user of Manus. This was Meta’s third largest acquisition since its establishment, second only to WhatsApp and Scale AI. After the merger is completed, Butterfly Effect will continue to operate independently at the company, team and product levels, while deeply integrating with Meta's core global consumer products.
But the acquisition changed on January 8 this year. At that time, according to a press conference of the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments to conduct an evaluation and investigation on the consistency of this acquisition with relevant laws and regulations such as export control, technology import and export, and foreign investment.
Subsequently, on April 27, the Office of the Foreign Investment Security Review Working Mechanism (National Development and Reform Commission) made a decision to prohibit foreign investment in the Manus project in accordance with laws and regulations and required the parties concerned to cancel the acquisition transaction.