The parent company of agentic AI specialist Manus secured more than $500 million in a funding round conducted a little more than a month after it resumed independent operations following the unwinding of an acquisition by Meta Platforms.

Butterfly Effect, which developed the AI company, did not reveal how it plans to use the money or a valuation.

However, Bloomberg reported last month a potential $500 million raise would give it a valuation of around $4 billion, double the sum Meta Platforms paid for the company in an agreement struck in December 2025, before the deal was cancelled on orders from the Chinese government.

Existing investors Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund were involved in the funding round, along with Boyu Capital and IDG Capital.

Investment rules
Manus formally resumed independent operations in September after China’s National Development and Reform Commission told all parties to cancel the deal with Meta Platforms, following an investigation which cited concerns over foreign investment rules.

Manus’ founding investors then moved to buy the company back at the same $2 billion valuation.

China’s concerns related to the fact Butterfly Effect was founded in the country in 2022 but moved its corporate base to Singapore in 2025.

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Indian authorities pushed back against Elon Musk’s claims that unnamed oligarchs were blocking Starlink from launching in the country, stating all three prospective operators remain broadly at the same stage of the regulatory process.

In a post on X, Musk accused “certain oligarchs” of trying to maintain a “monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people”, adding “you can guess who they are…” without naming the parties involved. “This is a crime against the people of India!” he wrote.

In a statement, India’s Ministry of Communications rejected the allegation, explaining its satellite communications framework is “fair and non-discriminatory”. It said assessments are currently underway for all licensed operators in India, with each required to meet security conditions before it can seek spectrum.

“At present, all the three entities are at broadly the same regulatory stage,” the ministry said, calling claims of discriminatory treatment “baseless and misconceived”.

The country’s telecoms sector is dominated by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel. Both operators, alongside Musk’s Starlink, have secured initial approvals for satellite services but are awaiting spectrum assignment and final clearances.

Starlink’s approval process has stretched over four years, with security requirements and spectrum access among the key issues under scrutiny. Musk has previously clashed with Ambani over India’s satellite spectrum allocation, although both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel later struck agreements with the tech mogul to distribute Starlink services in the country.

The US satellite venture’s regulatory wait has also been marred by security concerns. Local media reports stated authorities recovered illegal Starlink equipment in two separate operations in late 2024, including a drug seizure in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and an army search in the northeastern state of Manipur.

This week, Musk also disputed any suggestion the equipment was connected to an active Starlink service in India, posting on X that its satellite beams were “turned off over India” and “never on in the first place”.

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