China poised to lift travel ban on Manus founders

Beijing plans to soon lift a travel ban imposed on the founders of Manus as the AI agent company unwinds its $2bn acquisition by Meta.

Xiao Hong, chief executive and a co-founder of Manus, recently told staff that he planned to return soon to Singapore, where the agentic platform is based, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Xiao and Manus management, including chief scientist Ji Yichao, were restricted from leaving China after being summoned to Beijing in March for an investigation into the start-up’s sale to US tech giant Meta to determine whether investment rules were breached.

Manus this week announced it would soon return to operating as an independent business. “This is part of our separation from Meta; we must take this step to comply with regulatory requirements in specific parts of the world,” the company said on its website on Tuesday.

Unwinding plans would require final approval from regulators led by the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s powerful state planner, which in April blocked the Meta takeover.

Regulators in Beijing have told Manus that its business operations would not be affected once the unwinding deal is settled in a way that satisfies all requirements, the people said.

Beijing’s move reflects China’s nuanced approach to tightening control of its technology and AI industries while also allowing companies and entrepreneurs to develop their businesses if they abide by the rules.

In the unwinding deal, most of Manus’s former investors including Tencent, ZhenFund and private equity firm HSG, as well as management, will buy back the company from Meta for about the same valuation of $2bn, the FT reported last month.

American venture capital fund Benchmark, as well as a few smaller investors, will not participate in the buyback and their shares will largely be acquired by Tencent, which is set to become the biggest shareholder in Manus.

Tencent will only have a minority stake and Manus will continue to operate independently from Singapore rather than being folded into the Chinese tech company.

While it was being investigated, Manus continued to update its platform actively and is on schedule to launch its next 2.0 version soon after the unwinding deal is completed, according to one of the people. Its annual recurring revenue is expected to remain above $300mn after separating from Meta.

Meta bought Manus in December last year, just months after the company moved its headquarters and core engineers to Singapore from China, where it was originally founded. The US tech giant quickly folded Manus into its platform, including its advertising systems.

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In April, China ordered Meta to unwind its acquisition, citing breaches of investment rules. Meta started separating the operations and stopped data sharing shortly after, the FT earlier reported.

Ordering the deal to be unwound serves as a warning to other Chinese technology companies against using Singapore as a staging post for eventual sales to overseas buyers.

In order to address the loophole, Beijing was also considering adding agentic AI to its next updated export control list, the FT reported last month.

Manus, the NDRC and the commerce ministry did not respond to requests for comment.