A 2-billion-dollar deal is falling apart in front of everyone - and not because of the market, but because of a single order from Beijing. Meta has begun dismantling its acquisition of the Chinese AI startup Manus, after the Chinese authorities demanded the deal be annulled. According to reports, Meta has already cut Manus off from its internal systems and banned employees from using its tools as the two companies head toward a full separation.

What was meant to be a historic exit for the Chinese AI industry quickly turned into the opposite. The message from Beijing is clear: technology the state considers strategically sensitive stays under its control - regardless of where the company is formally registered. Manus, though Chinese in origin, had moved its employees to Singapore back in mid-2025 before announcing the Meta acquisition in December. It didn't help.

China didn't stop there. The authorities expanded travel restrictions on researchers and executives at private firms, requiring government approval before going abroad, and are tightening control over foreign capital. In other words - not only is the deal collapsing, but the people behind it are finding it harder and harder to leave the country. For a company that wants to present itself as a global player, this is a reminder of who commands the moves.

Ironically, while Meta cuts ties, Manus keeps rolling out new features and integrations - the startup operates as if the deal never existed. The founders, meanwhile, have already held talks to raise around 1 billion dollars from foreign investors to buy the startup back into their own hands, a move that would open the path to a Chinese joint company and an eventual listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

When two superpowers fight over control of artificial intelligence, startups become the battlefield, not the players. American capital wonders whether it should have flowed toward a China-linked firm at all; Beijing wonders why the best of its homegrown technology ends up in American hands. And somewhere in the middle sit Manus's engineers, who just wanted to build a product - and instead are getting a lesson in geopolitics.