Reuters: Tencent is negotiating to become Manus’ largest shareholder after China forced Meta to unwind its $2B acquisition.

Tencent and Manus’ original investors could repurchase the startup from Meta for at least $ 2B.

China reviewed the transaction in April over possible violations of investment rules.

Beijing later ordered Meta to reverse the purchase, reshaping a major cross-border technology deal.

Meta reportedly separated operations from Manus and stopped data sharing between the companies.

The separation shows how national rules can override corporate plans after contracts are signed.

Manus had already moved operations from China to Singapore before Meta announced the acquisition.

The relocation did not remove Beijing’s leverage over technology, ownership, and investment compliance.

A Tencent-led purchase could keep Manus under Chinese corporate ownership while adding a prominent AI agent platform.

Shows again advanced AI companies now carry political value beyond products and revenue.

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The legal context: Manus's Singapore incorporation does not erase jurisdiction over Chinese people, assets, technology, data, or earlier conduct.

Singapore governs Manus’s shares, directors, and local corporate procedures under its own Companies Act.

China cannot directly rewrite Singapore’s company register merely through a Chinese administrative order.

China instead used its 2021 foreign-investment security review mechanism against Meta’s acquisition. Beijing argued Manus retained Chinese links through technology, engineers, data, and its development history.

Export rules provide another hook when restricted China-origin technology moves under foreign ownership without approval.

Data laws can similarly control important information collected, stored, or developed inside China.

Several countries can therefore regulate one transaction through territory, nationality, assets, data, security, or market effects.

Enforcement usually targets whatever remains reachable, including founders, subsidiaries, licenses, bank accounts, contracts, and local operations.

Meta must then choose between compliance and owning a company stripped of disputed technology, data, and cooperation.

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reuters .com/technology/tencent-talks-become-ai-start-up-manus-largest-shareholder-ft-reports-2026-07-10/