China has blocked Meta’s deal to acquire AI startup Manus. The National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top macroeconomic regulator, unceremoniously posted on Monday that it had “decided to block the foreign acquisition of the Manus project and require the parties to unwind the deal.”
The move is a headache for Meta, for whom the Manus acquisition, reportedly valued at around $2 billion, is a key element of its new AI strategy. It’s also not clear how Meta can “unwind” the deal: Manus employees have already joined Meta’s AI team, and backers like Tencent and HongShan Capital have already received their cut of the deal, according to a report from Bloomberg.
