{"id":422983,"date":"2026-04-29T06:31:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/422983\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T06:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:31:24","slug":"china-blocks-metas-2bn-purchase-of-ai-group-manus-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/422983\/","title":{"rendered":"China blocks Meta\u2019s $2bn purchase of AI group Manus \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

China has ordered Meta <\/a>to unwind its $2 billion (\u20ac1.7 billion) acquisition of artificial intelligence<\/a> app Manus, as Washington and Beijing vie for dominance over the emerging technology.<\/p>\n

The decision marks an extraordinary late-stage intervention by Beijing, involving two non-Chinese companies. Meta had already begun to integrate software from Manus, which was founded in China but relocated to Singapore last year.<\/p>\n

It was unclear how the acquisition could be unwound at such a late stage. A person briefed on Beijing\u2019s decision said the announcement could be intended primarily as a warning for similar deals in the future.<\/p>\n

The person said the gesture was \u201cpretty harsh and it carries a strong intention to stop follow-on deals [like Manus]. In reality, it\u2019s hard to unwind a done deal, so it is more about verbal warnings on similar deals and [leverage] building before the Xi-Trump summit\u201d.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes in advance of an expected summit next month between US President Donald Trump<\/a> and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping<\/a>, when the leaders will address long-standing tensions over trade.<\/p>\n

Regulators began investigating in January whether China\u2019s investment rules had been violated by Silicon Valley-based Meta\u2019s acquisition of Manus, whose autonomous AI tools can carry out complex tasks.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday it would prohibit \u201cforeign investment\u201d in Manus and in accordance with the law has \u201crequired the relevant parties to cancel the acquisition transaction\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kerry Group CEO on the impact of Middle East conflict, AI and drive to keep bread fresher for longer<\/p>\n

To undo the deal at this stage, Meta could have to spin off its acquisition to a new buyer, sell it back to its former investors or find new backers. Any such process would be complex, as Meta has already integrated Manus into some of its tools, the FT has reported.<\/p>\n

A Meta spokesperson said: \u201cThe transaction complied fully with applicable law. We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manus allows users to build and run personal AI \u201cagents\u201d that are capable of independently executing complex tasks, managing files and creating software.<\/p>\n

The original creator of the company, AI start-up Butterfly Effect, was founded in China in 2022. Last year, Butterfly Effect moved its headquarters and core team to Singapore following a funding round led by top US venture capital firm Benchmark Capital.<\/p>\n

Within months, Meta swooped in to buy the AI app, as part of the parent of Instagram and WhatsApp\u2019s costly efforts to catch up with OpenAI and Google in AI. The $2bn deal was announced in December and closed earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The current listing for what is described as \u201cManus from Meta\u201d on Apple\u2019s App Store still describes Butterfly Effect\u2019s Singaporean entity as the software\u2019s developer.<\/p>\n

Multiple Chinese regulators have reviewed the transaction, including the NDRC, the commerce ministry and China\u2019s antitrust watchdog, the FT reported this month.<\/p>\n

Beijing earlier branded the acquisition a \u201cconspiratorial\u201d attempt to hollow out the country\u2019s technology base.<\/p>\n

Officials had been examining the deal using a range of tools, from export control rules to foreign investment and competition laws, the people said.<\/p>\n

In March, Beijing restricted two co-founders of Manus from leaving the country as the deal was reviewed.<\/p>\n

Manus describes itself as an \u201caction engine\u201d that can \u201cextend your human reach\u201d. It launched in March 2025, just two months after DeepSeek\u2019s debut of a powerful open-source model capable of \u201creasoning\u201d sparked a panic among US tech investors about Chinese AI advances.<\/p>\n

The Manus app was an early forerunner of OpenClaw, which has taken both Silicon Valley and China by storm this year. Both go beyond the likes of OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, which largely focuses on processing information and answering questions.<\/p>\n

The Manus acquisition represents the second major deal in which Beijing has intervened, following the sale by CK Hutchison of 43 global ports, originally including two in Panama, to a BlackRock-backed consortium.<\/p>\n

In that case, authorities pushed for the acquiring party to include a Chinese group as well, although that deal has not yet closed. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China has ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion (\u20ac1.7 billion) acquisition of artificial intelligence app Manus, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,969,61,60,1226,80,12139],"class_list":["post-422983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-meta","tag-technology","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}