China investigates Meta-Manus deal: Commerce ministry probes $2bn AI buy; Meta denies China links
Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus, with Chinese roots, is under investigation by China for potential violations of technology export and outbound investment laws. Despite Manus's move to Singapore and Meta's clarification on no continuing Chinese ownership, Beijing is scrutinizing the deal, citing the company's founding and parentage.
FILE -A Meta logo is shown on a video screen at LlamaCon 2025, an AI developer conference, in Menlo Park. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta recently made its third-largest acquisition. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp acquired Manus, an AI company with roots in China. Manus hit headlines globally in March 2025 when it introduced an AI agent, or tool, that could be directed to build websites and do other basic coding tasks on its own.
The company came into focus just days after Chinese AI startup DeepSeek sent shockwaves across Wall Street with its AI model built at a far less budget than that of the leading American companies. This made many analysts call it China's next DeepSeek, and the company was cheered by Chinese state television. The company months later moved its headquarters from China to Singapore, joining a wave of other Chinese companies that have done so to avoid getting caught in the US-China tensions.Now reports say that China is investigating whether Meta’s acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup Manus violated Chinese laws on technology exports and outbound investment. According to a report by Reuters, Chinese commerce ministry has said that the government will assess and investigate Meta's acquisition of Manus. According to China's rules, Companies engaging in activities such as foreign investment, technology exports, data transfers abroad and acquisitions must comply with Chinese laws and regulations.
“The Chinese government consistently supports enterprises in conducting mutually beneficial transnational operations and international technological cooperation in accordance with laws and regulations,” Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong said at a press briefing.Though Manus is based in Singapore, it was founded by Chinese engineers and had a Chinese parent company. Beijing has reportedly used the same grounds to claim final sign-off on any sale of the US operations of TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
Also, as per a report in Bloomberg, Manus trained its agent using AI systems built by other companies including Alibaba of China and Anthropic of the United States.
Two of the company’s early investors were former employees of Robinhood, the investing app.
Meta's clarification on Manus' Chinese links
Incidentally, as the buzz of Meta buying a Chinese company went viral, Mark Zuckerberg's company issued a clarification on Manus' China roots. “There will be no continuing Chinese ownership interests in Manus AI following the transaction, and Manus AI will discontinue its services and operations in China,” a Meta spokesperson saidMeta did not announce terms of Manus acquisition, but the Wall Street Journal reported that the deal closed at an amount over $2 billion.