In an unprecedented geopolitical twist for the tech sector, the founders of agentic AI startup Manus are aggressively moving to buy back their business from Meta Platforms, aiming to raise roughly $1 billion from outside investors to fund the unwind.

The move is a direct, forced response to a strict order from Beijing regulators commanding Meta to reverse its massive $2 billion-plus acquisition of the company, which closed just five months ago in December.

1. The Trigger: A Historic Cross-Border Regulatory Block

The forced corporate breakup marks a massive extension of international enforcement by Chinese authorities.

• The Regulatory Command: In late April, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) officially ordered Meta to completely unwind the buyout, citing national security concerns, violations of Chinese cross-border investment rules, and the potential outflow of highly strategic AI technology.
• The Corporate Loophole Closed: Manus had technically shifted its legal headquarters and core operating structure to Singapore in 2025 ahead of the Meta acquisition. However, the NDRC took the hardline stance that because the underlying tech and the co-founders (Xiao Hong, Ji Yichao, and Zhang Tao) originated in China, the firm remains firmly within Beijing’s regulatory jurisdiction.
• Travel Bans: Highlighting the severity of the standoff, Chinese authorities went as far as barring two of the three Manus co-founders from leaving the country during the regulatory review.

2. The Financial Strategy: A $1 Billion Recapitalization

To comply with the strict, fast-approaching regulatory deadline to break ties with the US tech giant, Manus’s leadership is executing an emergency financing playbook:

• Targeting $1 Billion: The co-founders are actively negotiating a massive $1 billion funding round with external backers. If a capital gap remains, the founders plan to inject their own personal capital to complete the repurchase.
• The Valuation Floor: The buyback round is being structured at a valuation of at least $2 billion, matching the premium price tag Meta originally paid to absorb the startup.
• The Growth Moat: Investors are showing serious appetite despite the geopolitical drama. Manus—renowned for building general-purpose AI agents that function as autonomous digital employees—is experiencing a explosive hyper-growth trajectory, tracking an annual recurring revenue (ARR) run-rate of roughly $100 million and projecting full-year revenue to hover near $1 billion.

3. The Unprecedented Disentanglement Challenge

While both corporate entities are cooperating to resolve the inquiry, pulling the two companies apart is a logistical and engineering nightmare. Reversing a finalized multi-billion-dollar deal of this scale so soon after closing is virtually unheard of in Silicon Valley:

• Splitting the Tech Stack: Over the last five months, significant portions of Manus’s core agentic models and algorithmic pipelines have already been deeply integrated into Meta’s internal software ecosystem.
• Rebuilding Infrastructure: A large chunk of the new $1 billion raise will have to be burned purely on expensive data-removal, infrastructure separation, and rebuilding a completely independent cloud architecture from scratch. Furthermore, Manus employees who had already transitioned into Meta’s physical corporate offices in Singapore must now be legally and operationally re-isolated.

4. What’s Next: A Shift to Hong Kong?

Once the separation from Meta is finalized, Manus will look entirely different than originally planned. The company is expected to be structurally reorganized as a Chinese joint venture alongside its new group of financial backers.

Instead of pursuing a traditional Western public listing in New York, the company’s revised long-term roadmap now points directly toward a future initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.