Jan 6 (Reuters) – Chinese officials are reviewing Meta’s (META) $2 billion acquisition of artificial intelligence startup Manus for possible technology control violations, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Meta and Manus did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Chinese commerce ministry officials began assessing whether the relocation of Manus’ staff and technology to Singapore and the consequent sale to Meta required an export license under Chinese law, the report said.
While the review is in its preliminary stages and may not lead to a formal investigation, the need for a license could provide Beijing with an avenue to influence the transaction, including, in an extreme case, trying to force the parties to abandon the deal, the report added.
Meta acquired Manus last month, when a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the deal values the Singapore-based firm at between $2 billion and $3 billion.
Manus went viral early this year on X after it released what it claimed was the world’s first general AI agent, capable of making decisions and executing tasks autonomously, with much less prompting required than AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek.
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
