Gemini becomes a work agent, OpenAI's revenue figure shrinks, and Manus closes its round

Google turned Gemini into an agent that does work, not just answers questions. Meanwhile, the money side of AI got a reality check. Here is what was announced, and what is still only reported.

Gemini becomes an agent, starting with businesses

At a Google Cloud event on Thursday, Google announced a single Gemini agent that can carry out tasks on a user's behalf, TechCrunch reports.

• Who gets it: Businesses first. Google says consumers will get it later, once it has worked through security, scale and performance problems.
• What it does: Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said the agent can be given goals rather than step-by-step instructions. It plans the work, hands pieces to sub-agents, and connects to company systems such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Jira and Snowflake.
• Its own identity: The agent gets its own Workspace account and email address. Staff can tag it, email it or add it to a group chat, and its actions are logged under the agent's name rather than a person's.
• Model choice: It picks a model by default, but users can switch to third-party models, starting with Anthropic's Claude.
• Cost controls: Google says spending caps and smart routing between models will help companies keep costs in check.
• Google's numbers (not independently verified): CEO Sundar Pichai said Gemini has over 1 billion monthly users and that nearly 90% of Fortune 100 companies use Gemini Enterprise.

Why it matters: an agent with its own email address and an audit trail is a different kind of tool from a chatbot. For small teams, the useful question is which tasks you would trust it to finish without checking.

OpenAI's revenue figure shrinks

Late last month, Axios reported that OpenAI's annualized revenue was nearing $70 billion. The Financial Times now reports that OpenAI told investors the figure is approaching $50 billion.

• According to the FT, the $70 billion number came from OpenAI's own investors trying to compare it with Anthropic.
• The two companies count revenue differently. Anthropic includes sales made through its cloud partners, and OpenAI does not, TechCrunch notes.
• TechCrunch also notes OpenAI's IPO has been pushed to early 2027, citing earlier CNBC reporting. OpenAI had not commented when TechCrunch published.

Manus closes its round

Manus's parent company, Butterfly Effect, said in a WeChat post that it raised more than $500 million, TechCrunch reports.

• It is the first round since Chinese authorities forced Meta to abandon its $2 billion acquisition of the startup.
• Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round. Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund also took part.
• Manus did not give a valuation. Last month it was reported to be seeking about $4 billion, and it is reported to be considering a Hong Kong listing. Neither is confirmed.

Arena doubles its valuation

The company behind the LMArena model leaderboard raised a $200 million Series B at a $3.1 billion valuation, TechCrunch reports. The company says it has moved into testing how safe and aligned models are once real people use them.

Not financial advice. This is a summary of public reporting. Do not buy or sell anything on the strength of a blog post, including this one.

What could not be confirmed

• Google's user and customer numbers are the company's own claims.
• The original Financial Times and Axios reports were not read. The revenue figures come from TechCrunch's summary of them.
• Manus's valuation and listing plans are reported, not confirmed.

Sources

• Google brings agentic AI to Gemini, starting with businesses, TechCrunch, Oct 8, 2026
• OpenAI's revenue is reportedly $20 billion less than previously projected, TechCrunch, Oct 8, 2026
• China's Manus raises over $500M in first funding round since split with Meta, TechCrunch, Oct 8, 2026
• Popular AI leaderboard Arena nearly doubles valuation to $3.1B, TechCrunch, Oct 8, 2026