China is sending a message to U.S. tech companies not to mess with AI talent and technology.
Analysts told Business Insider that the Chinese government is hinting at that by announcing an investigation into Meta's acquisition of Manas.
The investigation, confirmed by China's Ministry of Commerce in a press conference on Thursday, will examine whether the acquisition complies with the country's laws and regulations on export controls, according to a statement translated by Google.
Manus was launched in China last March by AI product studio Butterfly Effect, and gained global attention when it announced it had designed a “general purpose” AI agent that can perform tasks with limited human supervision. In mid-2025, the startup relocated to Singapore.
In December, Meta announced it would acquire Manus and completely cut ties with China. The deal is reportedly worth more than $2 billion. Meta did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment for this article.
China and the United States have long engaged in a regulatory war involving tech companies from both countries, but analysts told Business Insider that the investigation was notable because it appears to be aimed at stopping so-called “Singapore washing,” the process of moving companies from China to Singapore to reduce regulatory scrutiny.
TikTok's parent company ByteDance and fast fashion giant Shein are among the companies that have moved their headquarters from China to Singapore.
Analysts said the study is also a way to dissuade Chinese AI startups from choosing the United States.
“We see the Chinese government's investigation as an effort to prevent the loss of AI technology and talent to foreign acquisitions, especially the U.S.,” Wendy Zhang, a senior analyst at Mercator China Research, told Business Insider.
Meta said it plans to continue Manus' top leadership and integrate his technology into Meta's products, while continuing to operate its AI agent platform separately.
new battlefield
Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, has been subject to U.S. export controls that limit sales of advanced chips to China. Manus' research shows how the battleground has moved beyond chips to “models, agents, talent and enterprise deployment,” Marcy Grundy, company profile analyst at research firm GlobalData, told Business Insider.
Hannah Dohmen, a senior research analyst at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technologies, told Business Insider that while the study is “not surprising at all,” the approach regulators are taking is “more novel” because it “seems to be focused on the movement of talent and intellectual property.”
Talent is the focus of the AI race, with companies like OpenAI, Meta, and Google offering huge salary packages to attract top talent. Last year, Meta invested $14 billion in AI training startup Scale AI and brought in CEO Alexandr Wang to lead the tech giant's AI efforts.
Grandi said China's Manus probe could signal a “tighter crackdown on the outward transfer of AI technology,” adding that it could accelerate the “polarization of the AI ecosystem.”
The US and China have different approaches to AI, with Chinese companies tending to favor more open AI models such as DeepSeek.
It is unclear how long China's investigation will last if it progresses in earnest. Other investigations by the Chinese ministry took more than a year.
In his view, the most likely outcome would be for the deal to be approved “with restrictions, rather than a complete blockade.”
“Regardless of the outcome, this certainly sends a signal to other U.S. and foreign companies considering similar acquisitions,” Dohmen added.
