The Chinese communist government stepped in to block Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta from completing a company takeover in what has been described as an extraordinary late-stage intervention.
However, the CCP preventing a U.S. company from bringing a Chinese tech firm to the U.S. comes as no shock to other analysts who say it was strange the deal was allowed to get to this stage.
‘It’s got Chinese founders, and those Chinese founders are in China.’
In December for $2 billion, Meta acquired Manus AI, an agentic AI that resembles chatbots like ChatGPT. However, its differentiating factor has been that Manus AI “independently plans and completes” tasks without the need for continuous prompts from the user.
The company is Chinese founded but has since settled in Singapore. This did not stop China’s National Development and Reform Commission from rejecting the acquisition, in what was labeled as a mandatory “unwinding.”
The commission reportedly said in a statement that it was prohibiting foreign investment in Manus in accordance with laws and regulations. It also said that Meta’s acquisition had violated Chinese rules on foreign investment.
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Meta said on Monday, however, that it “complied fully with applicable” laws during its transaction.
“We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry,” the company said in a statement. The Times also reported that Meta has described itself and Manus as being two teams that have already become “deeply integrated.”
Some experts, like Matt Bloxham from Bloomberg Intelligence, were not surprised that the Chinese government stepped in.
“Manus was originally a Chinese-founded business and reincorporated in Singapore, but it’s got Chinese founders, and those Chinese founders are in China, and they’re being blocked from leaving the country,” Bloxham said on Monday. “So I think clearly, you know, this is an issue about technology transfer from one superpower to another, and that’s why we’re seeing this Chinese clampdown.”
Bloxham added that in his mind it was “a little bit surprising” that the acquisition had actually been “waved through” up to this point.
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Raul Ariano/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The White House provided a vague statement on Monday about protecting against foreign interference in its technology sector.
The Trump administration will “continue defending America’s leading and innovative technology sector against undue foreign interference of any sort,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, per the Washington Post.
Other features of Manus AI include interacting with a user’s browser and other software to complete tasks, with the capability of generating text and images across other user applications.
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