On September 1, Manus officially announced on its website that it has resumed independent operations, with its founding team continuing to lead the company. Two insiders have confirmed that the deal for Meta to acquire Manus has been officially terminated.

This comes just eight months after Meta announced its acquisition of Butterfly Effect, the operating entity behind Manus, and four months after China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) ordered the transaction to be unwound. On August 11, Manus had replaced its "Becoming part of Meta" announcement with a notice stating it would "soon resume operations as an independent company."

In early June, reports emerged that Meta had begun separating the business and halting data sharing, with Manus employees losing access to Meta's internal systems. These measures stemmed from an April 27 announcement by the NDRC, which stated that the Foreign Investment Security Review Working Mechanism Office had issued a prohibition decision on the foreign acquisition of the Manus project, requiring the parties to rescind the deal.

Earlier, sources close to the transaction had explained that the key to unwinding the deal lay in using fresh investment to buy Manus back from Meta. Given the NDRC's prohibition on foreign acquisition of the Manus project, the investors in the buyback deal would need to be Chinese-backed. According to reports, in early July, Manus's initial investors—led by Tencent, with participation from ZhenFund and Sequoia Capital China—pushed forward the repurchase transaction.

In the new buyback deal, Tencent took over Benchmark's previous stake in Butterfly Effect, holding roughly 20% overall as the largest single shareholder, while Sequoia Capital China and ZhenFund each hold around 10%. However, all external investors are purely financial backers with only minority shareholder protection rights; the actual controlling party remains the founding team of the Manus project.

Two additional insiders have indicated that the buyback agreement was formally signed approximately one month ago. One of them added that the agreement received approval from key global regulatory bodies in late August. A third source noted that throughout the unwinding process, communication between Meta, Manus, and regulators appeared smooth, with Meta expected to cooperate fully on separating technology and code.

In its August 11 announcement, Manus stated that to comply with regulatory requirements in certain jurisdictions, user data generated on or after December 29, 2025 would be deleted between August 23 and 24. Affected users were given until 7:59 AM Singapore time on August 23 to back up their data, with data restoration available from 8:00 AM on August 25. December 29, 2025 marks the date when Meta acquired Manus.

Two industry veterans familiar with similar transaction processes have analyzed that Manus's data separation measures signaled that the buyback deal had reached agreement. Based on the announcement, the key milestone for the buyback appeared to be late August, following data separation. By August 11, the parties had likely reached principled and framework-level agreements on core terms, possibly even signing a term sheet as the basis for formal negotiations, awaiting the right moment—such as late August—to formally execute a legally binding agreement and release the details.

On September 1, visitors to the Manus website were greeted with a pop-up window helping users restore deleted accounts.

Unwinding a $2 billion acquisition is no simple task. Under Article 12 of the Foreign Investment Security Review Measures, investments that have already been executed must be restructured within a specified timeframe—through divestment of equity or assets and other necessary measures—to restore the pre-investment state and eliminate any impact on national security. Strictly speaking, unwinding requires thoroughly separating two entities that had become deeply integrated in terms of personnel, technology, intellectual property, finance, operations, and corporate governance.

The aforementioned source noted that since the deal had only been completed for a few months, the unwinding process was less time-consuming than expected. Had the divestiture occurred much later after closing, it would have been far more complex.

Several industry veterans view this as a pragmatic, mutually beneficial outcome. Meta's acquisition of Manus for $2 billion marked its third-largest acquisition ever, trailing only WhatsApp and Scale AI. If the buyback is completed at a similar price, it would represent a result acceptable to both sides and consistent with commercial logic.

On one hand, given that personnel and technology had already been integrated post-acquisition, Meta managing to sell at a reasonable price is a rarity. On the other hand, for the investors participating in the buyback, Manus's rapid growth trajectory signals enormous future commercial potential and substantial returns.

Manus's commercialization pace had been exceptionally fast. Through paid subscription services, within just eight months of official launch, Manus's Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) had surpassed $100 million, making it the fastest startup globally to grow from zero revenue to $100 million ARR. ARR is a core financial metric used by software-as-a-service (SaaS) and subscription-based enterprises to measure stable, predictable, recurring revenue from contracts.

Multiple investment reports suggest that following Meta's acquisition, Manus's ARR grew by 4–5 times, reaching $400–500 million. Based on its two announcements, Manus post-restoration remains an AI agent product serving international users, with data stored in the United States and Singapore.

More concerning for AI industry observers is that AI agents require substantial model calls and computing resources. With the deal rescinded, Manus no longer has access to Meta's powerful computing infrastructure, distribution channels, advertising systems, and AI talent as potential backing. How Manus sustains its growth momentum remains a challenge going forward.

Inquiries sent to both Manus and Meta regarding the transaction termination and original investors' buyback progress went unanswered as of press time.