China’s state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), blocked U.S. tech giant Meta’s purchase of Chinese artificial intelligence startup Manus on Monday. This decision, ordering the cancellation of the deal, highlights the ongoing struggle between Beijing and Washington for leadership in advanced industries.
The NDRC’s decision shows Beijing’s determination to prevent U.S. companies from acquiring AI talent and intellectual property. This comes as Washington tries to slow China’s AI development with export controls designed to cut off access to U.S. chips This block could also add another difficult issue to the agenda for a planned mid-May summit in Beijing between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
California-based Meta, the owner of Facebook, had acquired Manus in December for over $2 billion. Meta’s goal was to boost its capabilities in AI agents—tools that can perform more complex tasks than chatbots with minimal human involvement.
However, in March, Manus CEO Xiao Hong and chief scientist Ji Yichao were stopped from leaving China while regulators reviewed the deal, according to sources familiar with the matter. Manus was praised early last year by state media and commentators as potentially “China’s next DeepSeek” after it released what it claimed was the world’s first general AI agent.
Months later, Manus moved its headquarters from China to Singapore. This move was part of a trend of Chinese companies relocating overseas to reduce risks from the growing U.S.-China tensions. Alfredo Montufar-Helu, a managing director at Ankura China Advisors, stated that Beijing’s intervention reflects how central AI has become to the strategic competition between the world’s two largest economies. He noted that controls, once focused on semiconductors, are now extending into AI.
“China is saying we will prevent foreign acquisition of assets we consider important for national security — and AI is now clearly one of them,” he said. Montufar-Helu added that this move also signals to companies that moving operations overseas will not shield them from Chinese scrutiny.
