China has blocked the boss of an AI startup from leaving the country after the company was acquired by Meta in a $2 billion deal, according to reports.
Manus chief executive Xiao Hong was told he could not leave China while regulators review the acquisition, the Financial Times reported, while chief scientist Ji Yichao was also barred from leaving.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced that it would buy Manus in December in an effort to boost its artificial intelligence offerings.
The Chinese startup, which relocated its headquarters to Singapore last July, gained attention last year after unveiling what it described as the “world’s first fully autonomous AI”.
Manus’s AI agent is able to perform complex tasks like booking holidays or creating podcasts without any human guidance, according to its creators, who describe it as the “next paradigm” for AI.
Following its initial release last March, Manus gained a waitlist of more than 2 million users after it outperformed several AI agents from leading US companies.
Meta said it would continue operating the standalone Manus service, while also integrating its capabilities across its other products.
Shortly after the acquisition was announced, China’s commerce ministry said it would investigate whether the deal complied with local laws and regulations.
Meta said in a statement that the acquisition “complied fully with applicable law”, adding that it anticipated “an appropriate resolution to the inquiry”.
The acquisition is one of several high-profile takeovers of AI startups that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has overseen in recent months in order to compete with Google, Microsoft and OpenAI in the space.
“Joining Meta is the logical next step in our journey to scale world-class AI products,” Manus CEO Xiao Hong said in a statement shared with The Independent in December.
“By partnering with Meta's existing teams, we can integrate Manus's technology across a global AI portfolio, bringing our autonomous agent capabilities to millions of businesses and creators.”
