Meta has completed its operational separation from the AI agent platform Manus and terminated data sharing, according to an internal memo. Since early June, Meta has barred Manus employees from accessing its internal systems and restricted its own staff from using Manus tools. The company is gradually winding down support for Manus, asking employees to migrate existing projects and stop starting new ones.
The split is a direct response to Chinese regulators' order in April to unwind the acquisition. Meta had paid $2 billion to buy Manus, and now the startup's three founders — Xiao Hong, Ji Yichao, and Zhang Tao — are trying to raise about $1 billion to buy the company back. Despite the breakup, investors like Tencent, ZhenFund (a Chinese venture capital firm), and Sequoia China (HSG) have already received their payouts from Meta's acquisition.
Even as the divorce proceeds, Manus is still pushing forward with integrations for Similarweb and Shopify, and this week users can still connect Manus to Meta's ad manager, Instagram, Gmail, and GitHub.