Meta and Manus face a harsh response from Beijing after $2 billion deal

On March 25, 2026, the story surrounding Manus received its expected continuation: Chinese authorities began a thorough investigation into the deal through which one of the most high-profile Chinese AI startups came under Meta's control. Two co-founders of Manus were summoned to Beijing and temporarily banned from leaving the country while officials investigate whether the deal violated foreign investment rules.

Why the Investigation Started

The situation looks logical if you remember the context in which it is unfolding. The US and China have been competing for AI leadership for more than a year, and Beijing simultaneously pumps money into the industry, tightens control over the tech sector, and painfully monitors how strong engineers and promising companies fall under American influence. Against this backdrop, the sale of Manus to Meta for $2 billion looks to Chinese regulators not like a typical investor exit, but as a possible leak of technology, team, and a future strategic asset.

Formally, there is no talk yet of a criminal case or public accusations. Regulators are checking whether the deal violated foreign investment rules and cross-border technology transfer rules. But the manner of pressure itself is telling: if the founders are summoned for a conversation with China's National Development and Reform Commission and then not allowed to leave the country, this is clearly not a routine bureaucratic procedure.

In parallel, questions arose in the US as well: Senator John Cornyn had earlier criticized American capital's participation in financing a Chinese AI startup.

How Manus Grew

The resonance around the deal is explained by how quickly Manus went from a viral demo to a company that Meta was willing to pay billions for. As early as spring 2025, the project was seen as a bold experiment in the AI-agent segment. But over the course of just a few months, the startup managed to capture the attention of users, investors, and competitors, and then became one of the most discussed assets on the global AI market.

• In spring 2025, the startup demonstrated an AI-agent demo that screened job candidates, planned trips, and analyzed stock portfolios.
• Almost immediately, Manus claimed that in a number of scenarios it surpassed OpenAI Deep Research, and quickly became the center of discussion.
• Within a few weeks, Benchmark led a $75 million round at a valuation of around $500 million.
• By December 2025, the service had millions of users and over $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
• Then Meta agreed to buy Manus for approximately $2 billion to strengthen its own bet on AI-agents.

Such a growth pace in itself makes the company a sensitive asset for any regulators and for the competitive race. For Meta, the purchase of Manus was a quick way to strengthen the agent products direction, where large platforms are trying to stake out the market before its final formation. For China, it is a story about how one of the most prominent local AI-projects came under the control of an American giant at the moment when its commercial potential had just begun to unfold.

Escape from China's Orbit

What might have been especially irritating for Beijing was not the fact of the sale itself, but the way Manus approached it. The company not only found an American buyer, but throughout most of 2025 consistently built distance from Chinese jurisdiction: moved headquarters and key team from Beijing to Singapore, restructured ownership, and after announcing the deal, promised to sever ties with Chinese investors and close operations in China. In essence, Manus was trying to prove that it was already a Singapore company.

In China, there is a separate expression for such stories — "selling young shoots". This is what they call companies that are grown within the country and then move abroad and are sold to foreign buyers before they have fully matured. With them, not only the founders leave, but also intellectual property, expertise, and future profits.

Against the backdrop of previous campaigns against Chinese tech giants, the signal is clear: if a business grew on a Chinese technological base, the state wants to have a say in its fate.

What This Means

The story of Manus shows that the AI market increasingly does not live by standard startup exit rules. If a company has Chinese roots, notable agent technology, and interest from an American giant, the deal instantly becomes a geopolitical story. For founders and investors, this is a direct signal: moving to Singapore, a new holding structure, and even a formal exit from China no longer guarantee that Beijing will let go of such an asset without tough questions.