Facebook parent Meta to unwind US$2 billion Manus AI deal after Beijing block

Facebook owner Meta Platforms is set to fully unwind its acquisition of Chinese-founded Artificial Intelligence platform Manus, more than three months after Beijing blocked the deal on national security grounds, capping off another high-profile decoupling between the US and China in the critical area of AI.On Tuesday, Manus wrote in a note to users that it would delete data by “certain users” generated on or after December 29, when Meta acquired the start-up, as part of the company’s transition back to independent operations.Affected users were asked to back up their data from now until August 23, while unaffected users may continue using the service without disruption.The data deletion is needed “to comply with regulatory requirements in specific parts of the world”, the note said, without specifying which requirements those are.Launched in March 2025, Manus is an AI agent platform that autonomously executes tasks on behalf of users such as browsing the internet and writing reports.Butterfly Effect, the start-up behind the platform, was founded in 2022 and had offices in Beijing and Wuhan before it rebranded Manus as a Singapore company last summer, a process that involved laying off China-based staff and scrubbing its Chinese online presence.