China blocks Meta's $2bn acquisition of AI start-up Manus

china blocked meta's $2bn acquisition of ai start-up manus, announced in late december. beijing's national development and reform commission prohibited foreign investment in the deal and required the parties to withdraw the transaction. meta said it complied fully with applicable law and expects an appropriate resolution. manus was founded in china but is now based in singapore. the company claims its service is a "truly autonomous" agent that can plan, execute and complete tasks independently, unlike chatbots that need repeated prompts. a meta spokesperson said the manus team is now "deeply integrated" into meta, so unwinding the deal could cause difficulty. the block comes amid us-china tech tensions. the white house said friday it would work with us ai firms to combat "industrial-scale campaigns" to steal advances, citing "foreign entities, principally based in china." china's us embassy responded by calling out "unjustified suppression of chinese companies."