Tech · Ars Technica
China kills Meta’s acquisition of Manus as US-China AI rivalry deepens
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China has blocked US tech giant Meta’s acquisition of the AI company Manus that was founded by Chinese tech entrepreneurs.
Key facts
- The unwinding of the deal would also represent a setback to Meta’s pivot to AI, which comes after the US tech company spent $80 billion over half a decade in an attempt to make the metaverse catch
- The Manus AI agent is an “agentic wrapper” or “agentic harness” that enables an underlying AI model—in this case, Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet —to take actions to carry out user requests
- The Chinese government formally asked Meta to unwind the acquisition on April 27 after deciding to ban foreign investment in Manus based on national security concerns
- Manus burst onto the scene in March 2025 with its “ general AI agent, ” designed to help users with tasks such as searching real estate sites for a new home or booking airline tickets and hotels
Summary
The Chinese government formally asked Meta to unwind the acquisition on April 27 after deciding to ban foreign investment in Manus based on national security concerns. Manus burst onto the scene in March 2025 with its “ general AI agent, ” designed to help users with tasks such as searching real estate sites for a new home or booking airline tickets and hotels for an international trip. That quickly drew the attention of Silicon Valley and Meta in particular, given CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s big business push in 2025 to develop “personal superintelligence for everyone.” When Meta acquired Manus, the US tech company began incorporating the Manus AI agent into its services, such as Meta’s Ads Manager, which is the main platform for advertisers to create and track ad campaigns on Meta’s social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
The Manus founders, Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao, have already relocated most of their team from China to Meta’s Singapore office and have taken pains to cut any lingering Chinese ties in the lead-up to the Meta acquisition late last year—even turning down Chinese authorities’ requests for meetings or investment, according to The Wire China.