Tencent in talks to become AI startup Manus' largest shareholder, sources say

Tencent is in talks to become Manus' largest shareholder after Meta was ordered to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of the AI startup due to a Chinese regulatory review.

​Chinese gaming and internet company Tencent ‌is ​in talks to become Manus' largest shareholder as investors seek alternatives after Beijing ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition ‌of the AI startup, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Friday. The Financial Times first reported Tencent's talks earlier in the day.

Tencent, together with Manus' original investors, including ZhenFund ‌and HSG, is planning to buy the company back from Meta for no ‌less than $2 billion, said one of the sources and a third person briefed on the matter. Tencent, Manus, Meta and the two investment firms did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Manus, which develops ⁠AI ​agents that can ⁠autonomously carry out tasks with minimal human input, moved its operations to Singapore last year from China. Meta announced ⁠in December the acquisition of Manus in a bid to bolster its own work on agentic ​AI. However, China launched a review in April into whether the deal violated ⁠investment rules.

The Manus order in April was the latest high-profile case of China blocking or challenging a ⁠cross-border ​transaction involving a non-China-incorporated company, amid increasing geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington. Since Beijing's order, Meta has executed an operational split from Manus internally and stopped data sharing ⁠between the firms, Bloomberg News reported last month.

Manus was hailed early last year by state ⁠media and commentators as ⁠China's next DeepSeek after releasing what it said was the world's first general AI agent.