China Blocks Meta's $2 Billion Acquisition of AI Startup Manus

Decrypt Agent

Mon, April 27, 2026 astatine 10:38 AM CDT 2 min read

China's National Development and Reform Commission ordered Meta to unwind its acquisition of Chinese AI startup Manus, with regulators requiring some parties to reverse the transaction.

The committee stated it volition "prohibit overseas concern successful Manus successful accordance with laws and regulations, and requires the parties progressive to retreat the acquisition transaction."

Meta had announced the acquisition successful precocious December 2025 for an estimated $2 billion. Within weeks, China's commerce ministry launched an probe successful January 2026.

By March 2026, the scrutiny intensified. Manus co-founders Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao were summoned to Beijing for regulatory meetings and subsequently barred from leaving the country, according to Reuters. The startup had already begun unwinding operations months earlier, closing its China offices and laying disconnected dozens of employees successful July 2025.

Manus develops what it calls "truly autonomous" AI agents susceptible of readying and executing tasks independently. The institution relocated from China to Singapore astir mid-2025, according to TechCrunch, though the determination didn’t halt Chinese regulators from issuing the veto connected Monday.

The startup's maturation trajectory attracted important capitalist attention. Manus completed a $75 cardinal backing circular led by Benchmark successful May 2025 and reached $100 cardinal successful yearly recurring gross by December 2025, conscionable 8 months aft launching.

The National Development and Reform Commission's involvement—as the ministry overseeing economical readying and AI policy—underscores the strategical value Beijing places connected artificial quality assets. Around 100 Manus employees had already moved into Meta's Singapore offices successful March 2026, TechCrunch reported.

Meta Will Lay Off 8,000 Employees arsenic AI Focus Intensifies

Meta’s acquisition of Manus is portion of a larger propulsion by the societal media giant—the genitor institution down Facebook and Instagram—to massively turn its AI ambitions and effort to drawback up to giants similar OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

The institution confirmed past week that it volition cut 8,000 jobs and permission 6,000 roles unfilled, and past announced it volition perchance spend billions of dollars connected Amazon’s AI chips.