China’s National Development and Reform Commission has blocked Meta from completing its $2 billion acquisition of agentic AI company Manus.

On Monday, the agency said it had “made a decision to prohibit foreign investment in the Manus project”, and that it would now require the parties involved to withdraw from the deal.

Manus, one of the first successful companies producing AI agents capable of operating without direct human supervision, was founded in China but moved operations to Singapore prior to the attempted acquisition.

Last month, the Financial Times reported that Manus’s chief executive Xiao Hong and chief scientist Ji Yichao had been barred from leaving China while an investigation took place into the sale.

The paper also reported, citing a someone close to the matter, that Meta had already begun integrating Manus’s agents into its own software, meaning an unwinding would be “messy”.

Earlier in April, following interviews with several people with knowledge of the matter, the Financial Times reported that the investigation into Manus’s sale involved multiple agencies across the Chinese government.

The decision ultimately came from its National Security Commission, which is led by President Xi Jinping. Beijing felt the deal was a “conspiratorial” attempt to hollow out the country’s technology base, the paper reported.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

---