Tencent moves to take back Manus after Beijing orders Meta to sell
Beijing ordered a $2 billion American acquisition of an agent startup reversed. Now Tencent and the original investors are negotiating to bring Manus home.
- Tencent is in talks to become the largest shareholder of Manus, the AI agent startup, after Beijing ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition, the Financial Times first reported.
- Tencent, with original investors ZhenFund and HSG, plans to buy the company back from Meta for no less than $2 billion.
- Manus relocated from China to Singapore in 2025, but its Chinese roots kept the Meta deal under Beijing's jurisdiction, making this one of the most significant forced unwinds of an AI acquisition to date.
Tencent is in talks to become the largest shareholder of Manus, the AI agent startup at the center of the year's strangest deal saga, after Chinese regulators ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of the company. The Financial Times first reported the talks on July 10, and Reuters confirmed that Tencent, together with Manus's original backers ZhenFund and HSG, plans to buy the startup back for no less than $2 billion. Coverage continued into the new week; none of the parties have commented publicly.
A deal unwound by decree
Manus gained recognition for launching what it described as the world's first general AI agent, and moved its operations from China to Singapore in 2025. The relocation did not move its roots: per Tech Startups' recap, Meta announced the acquisition in December 2025, Chinese regulators opened a review in April citing investment-rule violations, and the order to unwind followed. The buyback under discussion would return the company to Chinese ownership at or above the price Meta paid, one of the most significant examples yet of Beijing reaching into an overseas acquisition of an AI company.
Agent startups are strategic assets now
The lesson for anyone raising or acquiring in this market is that agentic AI companies are being treated as national strategic assets, and cap tables can be redrawn by government order in either direction. Beijing has spent the summer tightening its grip on the sector, from shutting down unregistered agents at home to the enforcement posture that surfaced in the Singapore side-door story. For Meta, the forced exit strands its most direct path into general-purpose agents. For Tencent, it may be the cheapest strategic acquisition of the year: a $2 billion asset, delivered by regulator, with MiniMax-scale ambitions attached.