Manus Is Back, but the Agent Battlefield Is Already Crowded with Rivals
Summary
Manus, now operating independently again, has released version 2.0, upgrading its in-house Cascade agent framework and launching Cue, a standalone app for personal tasks, while its desktop app becomes Manus Studio. The piece recounts Manus's path from its March 2025 launch, to joining Meta, to regaining independence on September 1, and notes the agent field is now crowded with rivals including OpenAI Codex, Anthropic Claude Code, Microsoft Copilot Cowork, Tencent WorkBuddy, Meta Muse, Alibaba's Qwen app and ByteDance's Doubao assistant.
Bubble analysis
This is a product-launch and competitive-landscape story with no funding, valuation, capex or revenue figures, so it neither supports nor refutes the AI bubble thesis. Its only indirect relevance is that the agent field is filling up fast and products are converging, which over time could compress pricing power and returns for individual players — but that chain is too long to count as bubble evidence.
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