News Summary
- Manus announced on August 11, 2026, that it will return to independent operations after Chinese regulators forced Meta to unwind its acquisition.
- China’s NDRC issued the withdrawal order in April 2026, citing regulatory violations related to technology exports and foreign investment.
- Meta completed the acquisition on December 29, 2025. Manus was founded in China in 2022 and later relocated to Singapore.
- Certain users must back up data created on or after December 29, 2025, before 7:59 a.m. SGT on August 23. Data deletion will occur August 23–24, with restoration beginning August 25.
- Meta had planned to integrate Manus’s agent technology across its consumer and enterprise products.
Manus announced on Tuesday that it will “soon resume operating as an independent company,” unwinding a $2 billion acquisition by Meta Platforms that Chinese regulators blocked in April.
The artificial intelligence startup, which develops general-purpose AI agents, said affected users must back up data generated on or after December 29, 2025 , the date Meta announced the deal , before a deletion window opens on August 23. The company will begin restoring accounts on August 25.
The separation follows an April order from China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which instructed both parties to withdraw from the transaction after determining it violated Chinese rules on foreign investment and technology exports.
Regulatory Intervention
The NDRC’s order in April marked a rare instance of Beijing demanding the reversal of a completed cross-border technology deal. Chinese authorities had been scrutinizing the acquisition since January, when the Ministry of Commerce opened an investigation into whether the sale complied with domestic export controls.
Manus was founded in China in 2022 by parent company Butterfly Effect. After raising $75 million in a round led by U.S. venture firm Benchmark in May 2025, the startup shut its China offices and reincorporated in Singapore. The relocation allowed it to bypass certain U.S. investment restrictions on Chinese AI firms, but Chinese regulators later determined that the underlying technology and talent originated in China and remained subject to Beijing’s authority.
According to reports from the Financial Times and Reuters, regulators summoned Manus co-founders CEO Xiao Hong and chief scientist Ji Yichao to Beijing in March 2026. Both executives were subsequently barred from leaving the country during the review.
Meta responded to the NDRC order by stating that “the transaction complied fully with applicable law” and that it anticipated “an appropriate resolution to the inquiry.”
User Data Transition
In its announcement on Tuesday, Manus said the data deletion is necessary “to comply with regulatory requirements in specific parts of the world.” The company emphasized that the action is not related to a security incident.
Affected users will receive notifications by email and through the Manus app. Those who signed up with an Apple ID or Facebook account should check in-app notifications, as Manus may not have email addresses on file. Users can back up data multiple times until the deadline. Affected accounts will not be charged during the transition period, and Manus said it will offer “welcome back bonuses” once service resumes.
Users whose accounts are not affected do not need to take action and can continue using the service normally.
Strategic Context
Meta acquired Manus to bolster its work on AI agents , systems designed to plan and execute complex tasks with minimal human intervention. At the time of the deal, Manus reported annualized revenue exceeding $100 million just eight months after its initial launch. The company does not build its own large language model; instead, it operates an agent framework on top of existing Western models.
The unwinding of the deal underscores the intensifying technological competition between the United States and China. Beijing has tightened scrutiny of cross-border transactions involving strategic technologies, while Washington has sought to limit Chinese firms’ access to advanced AI chips. The NDRC’s action signals that Chinese regulators will review deals based on the origin of technology and talent, not merely the target company’s place of incorporation.
For Meta, the loss of Manus removes a key piece of its AI agent strategy. The company has been aggressively expanding its AI capabilities and recently released its first coding agent as part of a broader effort to build a subscription business around the technology and compete with Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI.
Manus said it is “preparing a series of new features that will push the boundaries of what’s possible for general AI agents once again” as it returns to independent operation.