On April 27, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced it had blocked a foreign acquisition of Manus, the Chinese AI startup.
The one-line statement did not explain the NDRC’s reasoning. Nor did it mention that the acquirer was Meta Platforms, which had agreed to acquire Manus for more than $2 billion. Meta had wanted to offer Manus’s AI agent, a product the company offers, which can perform skilled work autonomously, across its various platforms.
