China’s National Development and Reform Commission has blocked Meta’s roughly $2 billion acquisition of Manus, an AI agent startup that Meta announced it was acquiring in late December 2025. The regulator has asked both companies to withdraw the deal.
A Meta spokesperson told the BBC that the transaction was fully compliant with applicable law and that the company expects to find an appropriate resolution to the inquiry.
Why Chinese Regulators Had Jurisdiction
Manus is currently based in Singapore, but it was founded and operated in China. Chinese law grants regulators authority over the export or sale of technology created by companies with Chinese roots, requiring approval from Beijing for such transactions. This regulatory framework also mandated Chinese approval for ByteDance to handle TikTok’s operations in the US during the Trump administration.
In March, reports indicated that Manus’s two co-founders had been prevented from leaving China during the regulatory review of the acquisition. Meta stated at that time that the Manus team had already been integrated into its operations and continued to run the Manus service.
What AI Agent Start-up Manus Does
Manus positions itself as an autonomous AI agent that can plan, execute, and complete multi-step tasks independently based on user instructions, without the need for repeated prompts during a workflow. Meta announced the acquisition to leverage Manus agents for enhancing AI capabilities across its platforms.
Unwinding the Meta/Manus Deal
The process of withdrawing the transaction is complicated by the level of integration Meta described in March. Reversing that integration while Manus co-founders are reportedly still under exit restrictions in China adds more uncertainty to how the unwinding will unfold. Meta has not provided any steps for complying with the regulator’s requirements.
This decision comes amid broader tensions between the US and China over AI technology. The White House stated last week that it would work more closely with US AI companies to counter what it described as foreign efforts to replicate American AI models, specifically mentioning Chinese entities. China’s US embassy challenged this characterization.
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