South Africa, Jan. 7 -- Meta Platforms' acquisition of the Singapore-based AI startup is one of the most significant moves in the company's recent history, and is expected to have deep implications for Meta's product strategy, competitive position, and broader AI ecosystem.

Flagship technology

At the core of the acquisition is Manus's flagship technology: a general-purpose autonomous AI agent capable of planning and executing multi-step tasks with minimal human intervention.

Unlike traditional chatbots that respond to prompts with text, Manus's agents can act, handling research, coding, automation, and other complex workflows on behalf of users.

These capabilities have already attracted millions of users and driven rapid revenue growt...