One of the most consequential deals in the global AI industry is being reversed by government order. The early Chinese backers of AI startup Manus are planning to buy the company back from Meta at the $2 billion price that the Facebook parent paid, The Information reported, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The reported move comes months after China ordered Meta to unwind its acquisition of Manus, amid Beijing’s tightening scrutiny of US investment in Chinese startups developing advanced AI technologies.
The move comes as Manus has posted significant growth since the acquisition, with annualized revenue reportedly climbing to between $400 million and $500 million, up from roughly $100 million when Meta acquired the company. That fivefold revenue surge makes the forced unwind particularly striking — Meta is being ordered to return a company that has become dramatically more valuable since it acquired it, at the same price it originally paid.
“Manus original investors plan to buy back AI firm from Meta for $2 billion — The early Chinese backers of AI startup Manus are planning to buy the company back from Meta at the $2 billion price Meta paid, following China’s order that the deal be reversed.”~Reuters
How The Deal Went From A December Acquisition To April Reversal Order:
Meta in December bought Singapore-based Manus, which develops AI agents that can autonomously carry out tasks with minimal human input, in a bid to bolster its own work on agentic AI. China soon launched a review into whether the deal violated investment rules.
Manus received a lot of attention earlier in 2025 when it was widely regarded as one of the most capable general-purpose AI agent systems available capable of browsing the web, writing code, managing files, and completing multi-step tasks with minimum human intervention. Meta’s acquisition of the business in December 2025 was described as a strategic move to boost its own agentic AI capabilities as the competition between OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic heated up.
In April 2026, China’s NDRC requested a reversal of the completed Meta-Manus acquisition, citing foreign investor security concerns. Meta has already commenced operational separation, detaching Manus from its internal systems and retiring the platform as part of compliance. Since Beijing’s directive in April, Meta has internally split from Manus and stopped sharing data between the two companies.
“After spat with Chinese gov’t, Meta cuts AI Manus off from its internal systems and is ‘sunsetting’ the platform — Beijing-ordered breakup of $2 billion AI deal begins as Meta operationally separates from Manus following China’s NDRC reversal order.”~Tom’s Hardware
The Buyback Structure: HSG, ZhenFund, Tencent In, Benchmark Out
Early investors in Manus, including HSG, ZhenFund and Tencent are participating in the buyback. HSG and ZhenFund are considering using fresh capital to acquire Meta’s position in the startup. The report said early investor Benchmark will not participate in the Manus buyback process.
Manus founders and early backers, including Tencent, ZhenFund, HSG, and Benchmark, are looking to raise around $1 billion to buy the company back at its original $2 billion valuation. Tencent, one of China’s largest technology conglomerates, is participating in the buyback effort, which adds a layer of strategic complexity by putting a company with close ties to Beijing at the center of the ownership reconstruction of a business that Chinese regulators deemed too sensitive to remain in American hands.
Benchmark’s decision to stay out of the buyback is notable. The Silicon Valley firm, which backed Manus in its early stages, appears to have concluded that the regulatory and geopolitical risks of continued involvement in a company subject to Chinese government oversight outweigh the financial upside particularly given the complexity of any future liquidity event.
“Meta halted data-sharing arrangements with Manus and implemented an internal split between the organizations as Chinese regulators reviewed the transaction. The operational separation was underway before the formal buyback plan was confirmed.”~Bloomberg
Hong Kong Listing, Joint Venture Structure, And What Comes Next:
Manus is considering overhauling its business structure to become a joint venture incorporated in China, paving the way for a Hong Kong stock market listing. The restructuring into a China-incorporated joint venture would address the regulatory concern that triggered the NDRC’s reversal order by bringing Manus formally within the Chinese regulatory perimeter, the company removes the foreign investment risk that made its acquisition by an American company problematic.
The timing is notable. Rather than slowing down after the acquisition, Manus appears to have accelerated. The Information reported that annualized revenue has increased as much as fivefold in recent months, reaching as high as $500 million. That growth may help explain why early investors are interested in reclaiming ownership.
The breakdown highlights China’s tightening of controls on the transfer of sensitive agentic technology, data frameworks, and technical manpower. Meta’s share price fell to $568.43 in June due to increased regulatory friction and costly operational separation procedures. For the global AI industry, the Manus case is being watched as a test of how Beijing intends to handle the intersection of advanced AI development and foreign capital, as well as whether the template established here will be applied to other US acquisitions of Chinese AI companies in the coming months.
