China's state economic planner has stepped in to block Meta's acquisition of Chinese artificial intelligence startup Manus, ordering the deal's cancellation on Monday as tensions between Beijing and Washington continue over leadership in emerging technologies.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) framed the decision as part of Beijing's effort to prevent the transfer of AI talent and intellectual property to foreign, particularly U.S., entities. The action highlights how Chinese authorities are treating advanced AI capabilities as strategically sensitive assets.
U.S. efforts to limit China's access to key technology are also at play in this dispute. Washington has implemented export controls aimed at restricting China's access to U.S. semiconductor chips, a separate but related attempt to slow aspects of Beijing's AI development. The NDRC's cancellation of the Manus deal underscores reciprocal measures by China to guard its own frontier-industry resources.
The acquisition at issue was completed in December, when California-based Meta, owner of Facebook, purchased Manus for more than $2 billion. Meta said the acquisition was intended to strengthen its AI-agent capabilities - software agents designed to carry out more complex tasks than conventional chatbots with relatively little human instruction.
Regulatory scrutiny surfaced in March when Manus chief executive Xiao Hong and chief scientist Ji Yichao were prevented from leaving China while authorities reviewed the transaction, according to sources familiar with the matter. That travel restriction remained part of the review process leading up to this ruling.
Manus had earlier drawn attention in China after releasing what it described as the world's first general AI agent and was hailed by state media and commentators as a potential successor to another domestic AI project. In the months that followed those developments, Manus relocated its headquarters from China to Singapore, joining a number of Chinese companies that have moved operations overseas amid rising bilateral tensions.
Alfredo Montufar-Helu, a managing director at Ankura China Advisors, characterized Beijing's intervention as a sign that control measures once focused mainly on semiconductors are now being extended to AI. He said the move signals that China intends to block foreign acquisitions of technologies and teams it deems critical to national security, and that shifting a company's legal domicile abroad may not be sufficient to avoid regulatory scrutiny.
The NDRC order and the surrounding developments could add another complex item to the agenda ahead of a planned mid-May summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, though the specific diplomatic consequences were not detailed by officials in the information available.