No — Meta has cut ties with Manus after China ordered its $2 billion acquisition unwound. Here’s the full timeline and what it means if you’re using Manus.
No, Manus AI is no longer owned by Meta. Meta announced a roughly $2 billion acquisition of Manus in December 2025, but China’s National Development and Reform Commission ordered the deal unwound on national security grounds in April 2026. By June 11, 2026, Meta had completed an operational split — cutting off Manus’s access to its internal systems and halting all data sharing between the two companies. Manus is once again operating independently while its founders arrange a buyback to formally close out the deal.
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View ServicesTimeline: How the Meta-Manus Deal Fell Apart
The Meta-Manus story moved fast — from a landmark acquisition to a forced unwind in under six months.
- December 2025: Meta announces it’s acquiring Manus, the Singapore-based autonomous AI agent startup with Chinese roots, in a deal reportedly worth $2 billion or more. Manus executives join Meta and integration begins immediately.
- January 2026: China’s Ministry of Commerce opens a formal “evaluative investigation” into whether the deal complies with China’s export-control, technology-transfer, and foreign-investment rules.
- March 2026: Scrutiny escalates — Chinese authorities reportedly bar some Manus executives from leaving the country while the probe continues.
- April 27, 2026: China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) formally orders the deal unwound on national security grounds, telling both companies to reverse the transaction.
- June 11, 2026: Meta completes an operational split — Manus staff lose access to Meta’s internal systems, data sharing is halted, and Meta employees are told to stop using Manus tools internally. An internal memo reportedly describes Meta as “sunsetting” the product relationship.
Why China Blocked the Deal
Manus relocated its headquarters and core team to Singapore in 2025 and positioned itself as a Singaporean company. China’s regulators didn’t see it that way. Under the country’s Foreign Investment Security Review framework, the NDRC treated the acquisition as a transfer of a Chinese-origin technology asset to a US company, regardless of where Manus was legally based at the time of the deal. The review cited national security concerns tied to export controls and cross-border technology transfer — part of a broader tightening of Chinese oversight on outbound AI deals.
What This Means If You’re Using Manus AI
Your Manus-built site still works
The unwind is a corporate ownership story, not a shutdown. Manus has continued operating and shipping updates throughout 2026, including new integrations, even after the NDRC’s April ruling. If you already have a site or workflow built on Manus, it isn’t disappearing overnight.
But the long-term roadmap is uncertain
What’s genuinely unclear is Manus’s ownership structure and product direction going forward. Its founders have reportedly been trying to raise close to $1 billion to fund a buyback and complete a clean separation from Meta, but that process hasn’t been confirmed as finished. For a business relying on Manus as core infrastructure, that’s worth factoring in — a platform mid-restructuring is a riskier long-term bet than one with settled ownership.
I cover how Manus stacks up against the other AI site builders — and when it makes sense to move off any of them — in my comparison guide on Manus AI vs Replit vs Lovable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Manus AI now?
Manus is operating as an independent company again. Its founders — Xiao Hong, Ji Yichao, and Zhang Tao — have been working to raise funding for a buyback that would formally reverse Meta’s 2025 acquisition, as required by China’s regulators.
Will my Manus AI website or workflow stop working?
No. Manus has kept operating and adding new features throughout the unwind process, including through mid-2026. The ownership dispute is separate from day-to-day product availability.
Why did China block the Meta-Manus acquisition?
China’s National Development and Reform Commission ruled the deal a national security risk under its foreign investment security review rules, treating Manus’s technology as Chinese-origin despite its Singapore relocation, and ordered the transaction unwound in April 2026.
Should I still build my business site on Manus AI?
You can still launch on Manus, but given the unresolved ownership situation, it’s worth planning for portability — for example, converting the site to a self-hosted platform like WordPress once it’s live, so your business isn’t dependent on how the Manus/Meta unwind ultimately plays out.
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