Chinese AI Company Manus Steers Focus to Singapore as World AI Competition Gains Momentum

Manus, an AI startup based in Beijing and Wuhan, is accelerating its growth in Singapore, reducing operations in Beijing and Wuhan as it prepares to scale up globally. Manus is hiring over 20 experts in Singapore, consisting of engineers, product managers, and data specialists, as part of an overall hiring spree that reaches San Mateo, California, and Tokyo as well.

Manus is said to have shed a group of employees in China, distributing many of those functions to Singapore, a person familiar with the situation said. It is just months after Manus obtained significant investment from leading Silicon Valley venture firm Benchmark Capital, in a round that priced the company at nearly US$500 million.

With a focus on autonomous AI agents, Manus has gained a stir among investors globally. Its top-selling product, outside of China, helps users perform complex tasks such as analyzing firm balance sheets and social sentiment analysis. The platform added functionality like scheduling tasks and building auto-slides recently.

In March, Manus unveiled what it described as a general-purpose AI agent, capable of screening résumés, planning travel itineraries, and analyzing stock data based on simple user prompts. The company claimed its technology outperformed OpenAI’s Deep Research tool in several areas, a bold statement that stirred interest and skepticism within the tech community. The innovation was also criticized by leading industry figures such as Founders Fund partner Delian Asparouhov, who was worried about American investment in Chinese AI.

Other Chinese tech giants, including ByteDance and Baidu, since then launched similar competing AI platforms, adding more fuel to the fire. Like other Chinese startups DeepSeek and Mihoyo (the game company behind popular franchise Genshin Impact), Manus has also chosen to locate its global headquarters in Singapore—a calculated move corresponding to the increasing scrutiny and regulatory pressure on Chinese businesses abroad.

With rising geopolitical tensions and AI innovation becoming the focal point of national attention, Manus's transformation into a global position is the growing importance of cross-border mobility in today's rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.