Beijing has ordered the Singapore-via-China agentic AI startup to reverse Meta’s $2bn-plus December acquisition. Manus’s response, on Bloomberg’s reporting, is to raise the capital required to buy itself back out.
Manus AI, the Singapore-headquartered agentic-AI start-up at the centre of the Chinese regulatory block on Meta’s $2bn-plus December acquisition, is weighing a fresh capital raise of up to $1bn to fund the unwind of the very deal that closed five months ago, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
The raise, if it lands, would value Manus materially above the $2bn Meta paid in December and turn the unwind into a recapitalisation.
The deal Manus is trying to reverse is unusual in shape. China’s National Development and Reform Commission ordered Meta to unwind the acquisition in late April, citing possible violations of Chinese investment rules and concerns about the outflow of strategically important AI technology.
Meta has been preparing for the unwind under a regulator-set deadline of weeks rather than months.
