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1.	Meta’s Acquisition Values Manus at More Than $2 Billion By Juro Osawa Source: The Information

Meta Platforms’ deal to acquire the Singapore-based startup behind Manus, a popular AI agent, values it at more than $2 billion, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal. This gives the startup’s venture capital backers an exit with handsome returns less than a year after the product was launched.

For example, Benchmark, which led the startup’s April funding round at a valuation of $500 million, gets to sell its stake just eight months later at more than four times the valuation. The Meta deal offers a big return for the startup’s earliest backer, Chinese venture capital firm ZhenFund. ZhenFund made a seed investment in the startup, Butterfly Effect, in February 2023, at a valuation of just $14 million, when Manus as a product didn’t exist yet and the team was working on an earlier project. ZhenFund, well-known in China for its focus on early-stage startups, participated in all the subsequent funding rounds for Butterfly Effect including this year’s Benchmark-led round.

At the time of Meta’s deal, ZhenFund was the startup’s largest outside shareholder with a stake of more than 10%, according to the person. Other significant shareholders—Benchmark, Chinese VC firm HongShan (also known as HSG) and tech giant Tencent—each held a single-digit percentage stake.

The acquisition came at an opportune time for the Manus team and its backers. Google’s recent launch of its highly capable Gemini 3 models and other AI products highlighted the tech giant’s strength in agentic AI, raising more questions about the long-term sustainability of independent AI agent startups.

2.	Tesla Shares Analyst Projections for Vehicle Deliveries in Unusual Step By Theo Wayt Source: The Information

Tesla has shared a consensus it compiled of analyst predictions for how many vehicles it will deliver this quarter, an unusual move for the electric automaker. Notably, the consensus implies analysts expect a 15% year over year drop in the number of vehicles Tesla will deliver in the fourth quarter of 2025.

That would mean the year would end with deliveries down 8% from last year. Fourth quarter 2025 sales have long been expected to shrink because a U.S. tax credit for electric vehicles expired on Sept. 30, causing some consumers to buy vehicles earlier in the year. But sales were depressed earlier in the year as well, with some attributing the decline to consumer dissatisfaction with Elon Musk’s political activities.

Tesla usually posts delivery figures for each quarter on the first trading day of the following quarter, which would be this coming Friday for the fourth quarter of 2025. But it is unusual for Tesla to share compilations of analyst predictions before it releases delivery figures. The consensus posted by Tesla also showed sales recovering in 2026 and continuing to climb for the next few years.

3.	Chinese AI Startup MiniMax Seeks $538 Million in Hong Kong IPO By Juro Osawa Source: The Information

MiniMax, a major Chinese AI startup that develops foundation models, aims to raise as much as 4.19 billion Hong Kong dollars ($538 million) in its initial public offering, according to the firm’s latest filings on Wednesday.

Cornerstone investors in MiniMax’s Hong Kong IPO include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, which is an existing shareholder of MiniMax.

Along with MiniMax, another Chinese AI model developer Knowledge Atlas Technology, better known as Zhipu, is also going public in Hong Kong, seeking to raise as much as 4.35 billion Hong Kong dollars ($559 million), according to its filings.

MiniMax and Zhipu are set to become the first publicly traded AI model providers in the global stock market, ahead of expected future IPOs from OpenAI and Anthropic. The Chinese firms’ listings will test public market appetite for unprofitable AI startups that are still looking for sustainable revenue.

4.	Citi Flags Loss on Russian Divestment By Michael Roddan Source: The Information

Citigroup will lose $1.1 billion on the sale of its remaining operations in Russia, the bank said in a securities filing Monday. The U.S. bank is selling its business to Renaissance Capital, one of Russia’s oldest investment banks.

Citi said it plans to complete the divestment in the first half of 2026, which would complete the bank’s long-held plans to exit Russia amid escalating sanctions applied to the country by U.S. and European authorities. Russian President Vladimir Putin greenlit the deal in November.

Citi said the loss largely related to currency exchange issues, but that the loss would not affect the bank’s overall capital. Citi warned that the figures could change in the event of further foreign exchange movements.

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