Manus Raises $500M After Meta Exit, Revenue Surges

Key Takeaways

• Manus raises $500 million after Meta exit, with revenue run rate also hitting $500 million
• Boyu Capital and IDG Capital co-led the round alongside Tencent, Sequoia China, and ZhenFund
• Manus launched Manus 2.0 with a new Cascade system
• Meta's $2 billion acquisition was blocked by China

Pfizer and two other AI healthcare stocks to watch

Pfizer, CorVel, and HeartFlow are highlighted as AI healthcare stocks. Pfizer uses AI in drug research and has a market cap of US$156.7b. CorVel applies AI to insurance claims, and HeartFlow creates 3D heart imaging tools. All three benefit from growing investment in AI-powered medicine.

Three software stocks exposed to the rise of AI agents

Five9, AppFolio, and Klaviyo are featured as stocks tied to AI agents. Five9 reported 42% Enterprise AI revenue growth and over 20% of new bookings from AI. AppFolio's AI tools are used by nearly all customers, with AI actions rising about 7 times year over year. Klaviyo has over 50 AI models in production but many uses are still early experiments.

Beijing 51World and two other top automation stocks

Beijing 51World Digital Twin Technology, Addtech AB, and Time Interconnect Technology are highlighted as automation stocks. Beijing 51World builds digital twin platforms for robotics with a market cap of HK$24.3b. Addtech supplies factory automation hardware across multiple industries. Time Interconnect makes cables for robots and automated medical equipment, with about HK$9.2b from server products.

ExaWizards and two other Japanese AI stocks to watch

ExaWizards, Finatext Holdings, and Fixstars are presented as Japanese AI stocks. ExaWizards earns about ¥7.7b from AI services focused on healthcare and elderly care. Finatext builds fintech AI tools and saw earnings grow 88.5% over the past year. Fixstars offers GPU cloud services for generative AI and trades at a premium P/E of 42.9x.

Manus raises over $500 million after Meta exit

Butterfly Effect, the parent company of AI startup Manus, completed a funding round of more than $500 million. The round was co-led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, with Tencent, Sequoia China, and ZhenFund also participating. Manus develops general-purpose AI agents and its revenue run rate reportedly surged to about $500 million after previously being acquired by Meta.

AI startup Manus raises $500 million after Meta deal collapse

Manus raised over $500 million in its first funding round since splitting from Meta. The round was led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital. Investors stayed confident despite China blocking Meta's earlier $2 billion acquisition. Manus must now prove profitability and meet regulatory requirements. The company launched Manus 2.0 with a new system called Cascade.

Greenboard expands sales team for AI compliance platform growth

Greenboard is hiring an Enterprise Account Executive and Business Development Representative. The company is backed by Y Combinator, General Catalyst, and Base10. New roles in New York and Phoenix show a wider sales push. This hiring may signal a growth phase focused on regulated financial markets. The company emphasizes experience at large tech firms.

3 AI security stocks with strong revenue growth

AI spending is rising and cybersecurity stocks are benefiting. Netskope protects cloud and web traffic with its Netskope One platform and has about $802.6 million in revenue. SentinelOne uses its Singularity Platform to secure endpoints and cloud workloads, earning about $1.1 billion. Tyler Technologies provides cybersecurity software for US government systems and earns about $1.8 billion from enterprise software.

Study examines Muon optimizer spectral settings

Muon uses matrix momentum to combine current and past gradients. The study introduces BulkBoost, a two-band spectral reweighting framework. Testing across 30 settings from Pythia-14M to 410M showed two-band reweighting performs well. The findings suggest that simple bulk-to-spike adjustments can match complex spectral profiles. This may reduce the need for fine-grained spectral shaping in Muon updates.

Taiwan exports hit record high on AI hardware demand

Taiwan's exports reached a record $87.2 billion in September. The increase was driven by global demand for AI hardware. Exports rose 60.9 percent year-on-year, marking 35 straight months of growth. Taiwan produces over 90 percent of the world's most advanced chips. The US remained Taiwan's biggest market, while ASEAN exports also hit a record.

Hong Kong raises record $47.5bn in shares due to AI boom

Share sales in Hong Kong reached a record $47.5 billion between July and September. Chinese companies raised this money to fund their artificial intelligence ventures. This total includes initial public offerings, placements, and block trades. The amount pushed the city close to its all-time annual high of $112.5 billion set in 2021. This surge happened even though the local stock market had a sharp drop recently.

OpenAI releases math proofs that confuse expert mathematicians

OpenAI shared new artificial intelligence results that solved about 3,600 difficult math problems in a single day. Hugo Duminil-Copin, a 2022 Fields Medal winner, compared this event to a mathematical carpet-bombing. Many experts worry the AI might have made mistakes because it is too early to verify all the work. OpenAI has already withdrawn three papers and promised to pay mathematicians to study their results. Some fear this technology could hurt the training of young mathematicians and change how knowledge is created.

Elastic stock could rise if new AI metrics product succeeds

Elastic plans to launch a new product called Metrics to help its large enterprise customers manage data. This tool uses artificial intelligence to combine observability spending and could increase revenue per customer. Analysts believe the stock is currently valued at 28 times its expected earnings for fiscal year 2027. If the company grows by 15 to 20 percent and margins reach 25 percent, the stock price could go up from $95. However, experts warn that high stock-based compensation costs are a risk if growth slows down.

Nscale doubles Bellevue office space to 46000 square feet

The fast-growing AI startup Nscale has doubled its planned office space in Bellevue to 46,000 square feet. The company recently completed a $2 billion funding round to support this expansion. The new office is located at The Eight tower and will open in 2027. Nidhi Chappell, a former Microsoft AI executive, leads the local team for this project. This move shows the company is preparing for a large hiring push on the Eastside.

Sources

• Pfizer Is Just One Of These 3 AI Healthcare Stocks
• 3 Software Stocks Riding The Rise Of AI Agents
• Beijing 51World Digital Twin Technology Heads These 3 Top Automation Stocks
• ExaWizards And 2 Other Japanese AI Stocks To Watch
• Manus raises more than $500 million after Meta exit
• AI startup Manus raises $500 million in first funding round since Meta breakup
• Greenboard Expands Sales Team to Support Growth in AI Compliance Platform
• 3 AI Security Stocks With Revenue Growth Over 9%
• Does Muon Need Fine-Grained Spectral Shaping?
• Taiwan says exports hit record in September on AI demand
• Hong Kong share sales hit record on AI boom
• OpenAI Just Carpet-Bombed Mathematics
• Elastic: The Next AI Software Winner
• Fast-growing AI startup Nscale doubles Bellevue office footprint to 46K square feet