Failed Acquisition of U.S. Company by Russian Media: Why Manus Is Returning to Independent Operations

Artificial intelligence agent developer Manus announced that, after canceling its $2 billion acquisition deal with Meta (designated as a terrorist organization by Russia and subsequently banned), it will continue operating as an independent company. As part of the separation, certain user data collected during the merger preparation period will be deleted.

Manus was founded in Beijing by a Chinese entrepreneur but relocated its headquarters to Singapore in 2025 and ceased providing services to users in China. Its AI agents are capable of independently searching for information, analyzing documents, writing code, and executing multi-stage tasks. For American investors, the team, agent management software, existing services, and accumulated operational experience represent the most valuable assets.

Following the announcement of the acquisition, Chinese authorities launched an investigation. The Ministry of Commerce reviewed whether the transaction complied with export control, technology transfer, and foreign investment regulations. Ultimately, China prohibited the acquisition of Manus. Regulatory bodies did not disclose the technical, data, or corporate relationship factors underlying this decision, so reports about the prohibition of transferring specific algorithms remain unverified.

The Chinese government may have considered Manus’s core R&D achievements and engineering expertise to originate from China. Although registered in Singapore, the source of its codebase, team, and early datasets has not changed. Chinese law permits review of overseas transfers of critical information technologies if regulators deem such transfers essential to national security. In this case, the Chinese government extended this practice to a company formally incorporated in Singapore.

Naturally, this decision should be interpreted within the broader context of the ongoing technological rivalry between the U.S. and China. The U.S. restricts the supply of advanced processors, chip manufacturing equipment, and certain software to China, while also controlling American investments in sensitive Chinese industries. Meanwhile, China seeks to prevent promising R&D outcomes and teams from falling into the hands of American companies.

This separation will affect some Manus users. The company will delete data created after December 29, 2025, but allows users to save their information in advance and restore it after the process concludes on August 25. Manus emphasized that this action is unrelated to data breaches or cyberattacks. However, the company has not disclosed how it will handle anonymous statistics, service configuration results, or other technical materials generated after the acquisition announcement. Additionally, it remains unclear which of Manus’s technical components had already been adopted by U.S. companies in their products prior to this event.

The equity structure of Manus following its independence has not yet been disclosed. Earlier reports indicated that Tencent, HSG, and Zhenxue Fund were discussing a potential buyback of the company at around $2 billion. Tencent may become the largest non-controlling shareholder. This solution would allow the company to retain Chinese capital while continuing operations in Singapore—critical for accessing international clients and Western business models.

For China, this ban aims to prevent a research outcome originating from China from being transferred into the hands of its primary U.S. tech rival. However, the decision makes it more difficult for Chinese startups planning to move their headquarters overseas and attract Western capital. Manus’s future today hinges on the composition of its new ownership, the financing of the acquisition, and its ability to maintain access to foreign business models and computational infrastructure.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1873408037757000/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) alone.