Overview
- Officials at China’s Ministry of Commerce have begun a preliminary assessment, which has not been opened as a formal investigation.
- The inquiry centers on whether moving Manus staff and core technology from China to Singapore required an export license under Chinese law.
- A licensing finding could give Beijing leverage to delay the deal, impose conditions, or in an extreme case seek to pressure an unwind.
- Meta completed the purchase in December, with reported valuations ranging from about $2 billion to $3 billion.
- Manus rose to prominence with a widely discussed general AI agent and relocated from Beijing and Wuhan to Singapore in mid‑2025; Meta and Manus have not commented on the review.