China’s NDRC Blocks Meta’s $2 Billion Manus AI Deal, Orders Withdrawal

China blocked Meta’s acquisition of the AI startup Manus, with the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China (NDRC) announcing on April 27, 2026 that it would prohibit foreign investment in the Manus project and called on the parties to withdraw from the acquisition deal.

“3D: Meta's acquisition of Manus is turning into a sovereign and strategic issue”

Arageek

The deal had been announced at the end of December 2025, when Meta said it would acquire Manus for $2 billion, and the acquisition was tied to Manus’s general-purpose AI agent described as capable of autonomously handling complex real-world tasks.

Arageek

Manus’s co-founder and chief scientist Yi Chao Zhi, and Manus CEO Xiao Hong, became part of the broader regulatory pressure as Reuters reported that China barred Manus co-founders from leaving the country while it reviewed the sale.

Meta’s response shifted from announcement to operational separation, with Bloomberg reporting on June 11, 2026 that Meta was decoupling Manus from its internal systems and preventing employees from using Manus in internal projects.

The Chinese government’s actions were framed as part of tighter control over strategic technologies, and the NDRC statement did not provide a detailed explanation for the decision to prohibit the investment.

As Meta moved to comply, CNBC and Bloomberg described an operational split in June that blocked Manus staff from accessing Meta internal data systems and ordered employees to stop using Manus tools for internal projects.

Reuters also reported that China barred Manus co-founders from leaving the country during the review, while the GIGAZINE article said the Chinese government had banned Manus’s chief scientist, Mr. Zhi, and CEO, Mr. Hong, from leaving the country.

BBC

The separation process was described as more than a simple corporate rollback, with Bloomberg reporting that Meta was preventing employees from using Manus in internal projects and with the reporting that Manus was being “sunsetting” via an internal memo viewed by Bloomberg.

In the U.S. political debate, Senator John Cornyn posted on his X account that, "Why should American investors fund our biggest competitor in the field of AI (China), when the Chinese government is using that technology to challenge us economically and militarily?"

TechCrunch quoted a Singapore-based advisor, Matthias Hendrichs, saying, "Chinese-origin AI now carries a kind of reversibility risk that no clever deal structure can price out," as the case became a test for how far China would go to safeguard strategic technology and talent.

The unwinding has immediate consequences for investors and for Manus’s future structure, with TechCrunch reporting that Manus co-founders held preliminary discussions about raising approximately $1 billion from outside investors to reclaim the startup from Meta.

GIGAZINE also said that in May 2026 it was reported Manus’s co-founders held preliminary discussions to raise approximately $1 billion from external investors to reverse the acquisition by Meta, and it described Bloomberg reporting on June 11 that Meta was decoupling Manus from internal systems.

The process also intersects with where Manus operates, since the GIGAZINE article said Manus established a base in Singapore after deciding to distance itself from its Chinese roots to attract investment from the United States.

Beyond Meta and Manus, the reporting tied the case to broader tightening of outbound investment and technology-transfer controls, including Reuters reporting that major Chinese AI companies such as Moonshot AI, StepFun, and ByteDance would need government approval to receive investment from the United States.

Euronews framed the stakes as a broader Beijing policy to curb the flow of American investments into the technology sector, and it said Manus was designed to perform complex tasks autonomously from start to finish, such as sorting résumés, managing bookings, and handling multiple operations without human intervention.