After an acquisition by Meta failed, the AI agent Manus appears set to return to Chinese control. The Chinese government blocked an acquisition by Meta.
At the end of 2025, Meta announced it would acquire the AI agent Manus for a sum of $2 billion. The Chinese government recently threw a wrench in the works for Meta by banning the acquisition. While Manus may be officially registered in Singapore, Butterfly Effect—the company that developed Manus—is originally of Chinese origin.
Chinese interests are waiting in the wings to definitively grab Manus from Meta’s hands. The original investors and founders are raising the necessary funds to ‘buy back’ the company from Meta at the current valuation of $2 billion. The Chinese tech giant Tencent would reportedly buy the largest stake. Under the proposed structure, Manus would continue to operate as a separate entity from Singapore.
The Financial Times reports that Meta has already stopped exchanging data between its advertising systems and Manus. A financial decoupling has not yet occurred.
Beijing says no
Other options are still on the table, such as an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In any case, the Chinese government wants Manus to remain in Chinese hands. The company ‘fled’ to Singapore a few months before the acquisition, where its headquarters is now officially located. Beijing blocked the takeover because, according to the official statement, it would have violated investment regulations.
The failed acquisition is one of many examples of how China and the US are making life difficult for each other regarding AI technology. Both Beijing and Washington prefer to keep their most promising AI technology under their own control. Exports of chips and models abroad or foreign acquisitions are being restricted without hesitation. Europe is caught between these two political fires.