China blocks Meta's $2bn Manus deal

China on April 27 ordered Meta to cancel its planned $2 billion acquisition of Manus, a Singapore-based artificial intelligence startup with Chinese roots. (cnbc.com) (apnews.com) China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the state planning agency, said Monday that Meta must unwind the deal after a regulatory review. Reuters, CNBC and Bloomberg all reported the order as a formal block of the transaction. (cnbc.com) (bloomberg.com) (msn.com) Manus is based in Singapore but was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, putting the company in the middle of Beijing’s controls on advanced technology and outbound talent. Associated Press said Chinese authorities had already been probing the deal before Monday’s order. (apnews.com) (cnbc.com) The central issue is “agentic” artificial intelligence, software built to carry out multi-step tasks with less human prompting than a standard chatbot. Manus had become one of the more closely watched startups in that category, which helped explain Meta’s interest. (cnbc.com) (theinformation.com) Beijing opened its probe in January, according to CNBC, and The Information reported on April 15 that the investigation had already rattled Chinese startup founders. The publication said the case cast a shadow over selling Chinese-linked artificial intelligence companies to U.S. buyers. (cnbc.com) (theinformation.com) The scrutiny escalated last month, when reports said China had barred two Manus co-founders from leaving the country while the review was underway. Barron’s and other outlets tied those travel restrictions directly to national-security concerns around the sale. (barrons.com) (msn.com) Meta had defended the acquisition in March, telling CNBC that the transaction complied with applicable law. Monday’s order means that argument did not persuade Chinese regulators. (cnbc.com) The case lands as Washington and Beijing are already fighting over access to advanced chips, cloud computing and frontier artificial intelligence models. Bloomberg and Reuters both framed the Manus decision as part of a broader U.S.-China contest over who controls cutting-edge AI technology. (bloomberg.com) (msn.com) For Meta, the blocked purchase closes off a fast way to add outside agent software to its artificial intelligence stack. For Chinese founders, it narrows one of the clearest exit routes: a sale to a U.S. technology giant. (theinformation.com) (cnbc.com)