Chinese startup behind Manus seeks $500M valuation, The Information says

Manus, a computer-using AI agent that browses many websites to execute tasks like travel booking and stock analysis, attracted attention among tech executives and AI developers on X and other social media sites just days after its March beta launch, The Information’s Natasha Mascarenhas, Juro Osawa and Jing Yang write. The hype around Manus stemmed in part from growing U.S. interest in Chinese-made AI products thanks to the huge success of DeepSeek, a Chinese-built large-language open-source model that claims to rival offerings from Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta Platforms (META) but using a much smaller budget. Butterfly Effect, the startup behind Manus, recently met in person and online with some U.S. investors to gauge their interest, according to sources. The company is likely to raise tens of millions in funding, the authors note.