China on Monday blocked U.S. tech giant Meta\u2019s acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup Manus, in an unexpected move to reverse a deal that apparently aroused Beijing\u2019s concerns about the transfer of advanced technology. <\/p>\n
In a one-line statement, China\u2019s National Development and Reform Commission, the country\u2019s top planning agency, said it was prohibiting the foreign acquisition of Manus and had required all the parties to withdraw from the deal. It did not specifically name Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram.<\/p>\n
Manus, which has Chinese roots but is based in Singapore, provides a general-purpose AI agent that can autonomously carry out sophisticated tasks like coding an app, doing market research or preparing quarterly budgets. <\/p>\n
The decision was made by the commission\u2019s Office of the Working Mechanism for Security Review of Foreign Investment in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations, the statement said. It came after Chinese authorities said they were looking into the deal earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The commission did not elaborate on the reasons for the ban. The announcement came less than a month before President Trump\u2019s planned visit to Beijing to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in May. <\/p>\n
Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, on Monday said in a statement that the Trump administration \u201cwill continue defending America\u2019s leading and innovative technology sector against undue foreign interference of any sort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meta announced in December that it was acquiring Manus, in a rare case of a major U.S. tech group buying an AI company with strong links to China. Its deal with Manus was expected to help expand AI offerings across Meta\u2019s platforms.<\/p>\n
Meta had said there would be \u201cno continuing Chinese ownership interests in Manus\u201d and that Manus would discontinue its services and operations in China. But China said in January that it would investigate whether the acquisition would be consistent with its laws and regulations.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s commerce ministry said at the time that any enterprises engaging in outward investment, technology exports, data transfers and cross-border acquisitions must comply with Chinese law. Meta had said most of Manus\u2019 employees were based in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Before the deal, Manus\u2019 parent was Singapore-based Butterfly Effect Pte, but the AI startup traces its roots back to Beijing-registered entities with similar names that were established several years earlier.<\/p>\n
Manus did not respond to a request for comment. Its website says the company \u201cis now part of Meta,\u201d indicating that the deal had already been completed.<\/p>\n
Meta said on Monday that the Manus transaction \u201ccomplied fully with applicable law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry,\u201d the California-based company said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Analysts said the decision is a sign that China\u2019s communist leaders are tightening scrutiny of the AI industry amid intensifying geopolitical rivalry with the U.S. over the technology. <\/p>\n
\u201cChina is showing the world that it is willing to play hardball when it comes to AI talents and capabilities, which the country views as a core national security asset,\u201d said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia. \u201cIt is strongly indicative of what Chinese authorities may do going forward regarding acquisitions involving Chinese deep-tech companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beijing\u2019s acquisition ban could deter similar acquisition plans by U.S. tech giants, he said. \u201cIn the context of rivalry, it mirrors U.S. export controls, entity lists, and investment curbs on China,\u201d said Su.<\/p>\n
Meta\u2019s interest in Manus reflects a broader tech industry race to lead in the development of AI agents that can go beyond a chatbot\u2019s capabilities to take computer-based actions on people\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n
Meta last month acquired Moltbook after it attracted viral attention as a social network built for AI agents to make posts and interact with each other. That was after OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, hired the creator of AI agent OpenClaw, formerly called Moltbot and the technology upon which Moltbook was built.<\/p>\n
Ho-Him, Leung and Chan write for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China on Monday blocked U.S. tech giant Meta\u2019s acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup Manus, in an unexpected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4211,14730,24,14729,25,2699,387,9086,13783,12965,1122,8242,14727,13782,14728,14731],"class_list":{"0":"post-20985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-acquisition","9":"tag-advanced-technology","10":"tag-ai","11":"tag-ai-startup-deal","12":"tag-artificial-intelligence","13":"tag-beijing","14":"tag-china","15":"tag-deal","16":"tag-general-purpose-ai-agent","17":"tag-manus","18":"tag-meta","19":"tag-monday","20":"tag-one-line-statement","21":"tag-reform-commission","22":"tag-rivalry","23":"tag-transfer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}