China Orders Meta to Return AI Startup; Meta Asks If It Can At Least Keep the Mug
BEIJING / MENLO PARK — China’s government has ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus, ruling that the deal represents an unacceptable transfer of frontier technology and escalating what analysts are calling “the AI version of a trade war” and what both governments are calling “a regulatory matter” while clearly meaning the same thing.
The ruling, issued by China’s Ministry of Commerce, requires Meta to fully divest its stake in Manus — a Shanghai-founded AI company known for its autonomous “agentic” capabilities — within ninety days. Failure to comply will result in penalties that the ministry described as “significant” and that Meta’s legal team described as “something we are reviewing.”