Manus launches text-to-video generation, competing with OpenAI, Tencent, and Alibaba
On June 4, Chinese startup Manus unveiled a video-from-text feature, joining the competition with giants like OpenAI, Alibaba, and Tencent in the field of artificial intelligence. The new solution allows you to generate sequential video stories based on text requests in just a few minutes, which strengthens the company’s position against the background of global competition in the technology industry, informs Bloomberg.
Manus, which is already known for its AI agent capable of performing complex tasks, announced the launch of the feature on June 4. Paid users got early access, and everyone else will be able to use it later. Its development pits Manus against other market players — including OpenAI’s Sora, which is included in the $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro subscription, as well as services such as Runway, Synthesia, and Google. In China itself, the company faces competition from Alibaba (Wan) and Tencent (Hunyuan), which are developing open models, unlike their closed Western counterparts.
The main challenge for Manus will be the scaling of the product in conditions where Western competitors have much more resources and an already formed audience. Despite this, the company — which originated in China and gained momentum in 2025 after presenting an AI agent — has already attracted the attention of international investors. Its parent, Butterfly Effect, has raised funding from US-based Benchmark Capital, a sign of global interest in its technology despite tensions between China and the US over AI.
The text-based video generation sector is valued at billions of dollars and has the potential to revolutionize the entertainment, education and marketing industries. The openness of Chinese developments puts pressure on Western players, and the success of Manus and DeepSeek demonstrates China’s ability to develop innovative AI products, even in the face of limited access to Western technology and components.
