China blocks Meta’s $2B Manus deal after months-long probe

China’s high financial planner, the Nationwide Improvement and Reform Fee (NDRC), stated on Monday it has blocked Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of Manus, an agentic AI startup based by Chinese language engineers that relocated to Singapore earlier than Mark Zuckerberg scooped it up late final 12 months.

The transfer marks certainly one of China’s most vital interventions in a cross-border deal, one which extends properly past U.S.-China tensions and into the broader AI trade. For Meta, it might deal a severe blow to its ambitions within the fast-moving AI brokers house.

With no clarification provided, China’s NDRC ordered each events to unwind the deal completely.

“The Nationwide Improvement and Reform Fee (NDRC) has decided to ban overseas funding within the Manus challenge in accordance with legal guidelines and rules, and has required the events concerned to withdraw the acquisition transaction,” it stated.

However the state of affairs is way from easy. Round  100 Manus staff have already moved into Meta’s Singapore workplaces as of March, with founders taking over govt roles. CEO Xiao Hong now studies on to Meta COO Javier Olivan. Manus CEO Hong and Chief Scientist Yichao Ji are reportedly below exit bans, stopping them from leaving mainland China.

“The transaction complied totally with relevant legislation. We anticipate an applicable decision to the inquiry,” a spokesperson at Meta advised Trendster.

Based in 2022 by Hong, Ji and Tao Zhang, Manus relocated its headquarters from China to Singapore round mid-2025. Simply months later, Meta got here knocking. The corporate introduced its acquisition of Manus in December 2025 for roughly $2 billion to $3 billion, with plans to fold its agent know-how straight into Meta AI.

Meta has agreed to amass Singapore-based AI startup Manus, with the deal requiring a full exit from Chinese language possession and operations, per Nikkei Asia. However the firm’s origins hint again to China. Manus’ founders beforehand established its father or mother firm, Butterfly Impact, in Beijing in 2022 earlier than relocating to Singapore. That background has drawn scrutiny in Washington, the place Senator John Cornyn has already raised issues about Benchmark’s funding within the firm, questioning whether or not American capital must be flowing to a Chinese language-linked agency, Trendster identified, citing Cornyn’s publish on X.

Manus didn’t reply to Trendster’s request for remark.