MANUS became Singapore’s first billion-dollar artificial intelligence (AI) startup after Meta’s acquisition. But it was not originally from the city-state.
A Chinese founding team started it in China, then moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2025. The neutral ground helped it sidestep US-China tensions and enabled its acquisition by a US tech giant.
Will Singapore see another Manus? Plenty of Chinese founders are building AI companies in the city-state, whether from scratch or through recent relocations.
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