China blocks Meta’s $2bn purchase of AI group Manus

china blocked meta's $2bn purchase of ai startup manus, citing a review under beijing's investment rules. regulators looked at whether the deal violated restrictions on foreign acquisitions in sensitive tech sectors. manus is a beijing-based company that builds autonomous ai agents — software that can complete tasks without human input. the deal would have been meta's largest ai acquisition to date. china's decision comes as both countries tighten scrutiny over cross-border tech deals, especially around artificial intelligence.