The AI startup Manus is changing hands again, and this time a government is calling the shots.
According to Tom's Hardware, Tencent is reportedly in talks with Manus and other investors to raise the roughly $2 billion needed to buy the startup back from Meta. The move follows an intervention by Beijing, which Tom's Hardware reports ordered the two companies to unwind their deal about six months after Meta's purchase of Manus was first announced.
That original acquisition came as a surprise. Its reversal, driven by regulators rather than by the companies themselves, is a reminder of how much control Beijing exerts over Chinese technology assets — and how wary it is of a major domestic AI player ending up under American ownership.
One detail stands out: even if Tencent helps fund the buyback, Manus is said to expect to remain independent of the Chinese tech giant. In other words, Tencent would be an investor and dealmaker rather than a new parent company swallowing the startup whole.
The episode is already rippling into markets. A piece from simplywall.st notes that retail investors are watching Chinese AI stocks in the wake of what it calls the Manus deal falling apart, suggesting traders see the unwinding as a signal about where Chinese AI money and momentum are heading next.
Why it matters: the forced collapse of a cross-border AI deal shows that ownership of cutting-edge AI companies is now a geopolitical question, not just a business one — and that even the biggest players, from Meta to Tencent, operate at the mercy of national governments.