Why China’s NDRC Blocked Meta’s $2B Purchase of AI Agent Platform Manus

On April 27, 2026, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) published a decisive notice on the official government information platform, stating that it had completed a security review of Meta’s more than $2 billion acquisition of Manus and formally issued a ban, requiring the parties to cancel the transaction immediately.

Manus is not an ordinary startup; it is a general‑AI intelligent‑agent platform created by a Chinese team. The platform offers autonomous task planning, code generation and complex workflow automation, and within less than a year generated annualized revenue of hundreds of millions of yuan, becoming a benchmark product in the AI‑Agent field and attracting heavy acquisition interest from overseas technology giants.

The review strictly adhered to the legal framework of the “Foreign Investment Security Review Measures”, focusing on three core safety dimensions: key technology, data security and industrial competitiveness. After a comprehensive risk assessment of these dimensions, the decision was deemed procedurally proper, evidence‑based and with clear boundaries.

The announcement also conveys a stable expectation: China will continue high‑level openness while safeguarding bottom lines, emphasizing that security reviews aim to protect against risks rather than restrict normal cross‑border investment and technology cooperation.

For the market, the decision sends a clear signal that cross‑border mergers involving critical core technologies, important data resources and emerging strategic industries will face stricter, more penetrating and regular security reviews. Enterprises must prioritize compliance filing, risk assessment and controllability to avoid breaching national‑security red lines.