Meta’s acquisition of Manus highlights how the United States can absorb global AI talent while tightening national security controls in an intensifying US–China tech rivalry.

In late December 2025, Meta Platforms officially acquired Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup with deep Chinese roots, in a deal valued between $2 billion and $3 billion. It was Meta’s third-largest acquisition ever, trailing only its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Scale AI. On paper, the deal looked like another bold Silicon Valley wager on the future of artificial intelligence (AI). In reality, it has become a prism through which the next phase of the US–China AI race, global talent flows, and national security anxieties are refracted.

At its core, the acquisition signals a shift in AI’s center of gravity—from chatbots that talk to agents that act. Manus specializes in “AI agents” capable of autonomously executing complex tasks: booking travel, coordinating workflows, managing enterprise operations, and interacting with digital environments with minimal human supervision. This is the frontier Meta believes will define the next era of “superintelligence.”

In July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an open letter: “Superintelligence will usher in a new era of personal empowerment—giving people greater agency to shape the world they want to build.” Acquiring Manus is a concrete step toward that vision, and a clear signal that Meta intends to compete aggressively with OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft not just in models, but in applied, agentic AI systems that actually do things.

Three Details That Shocked China’s Tech World

The deal triggered unprecedented attention inside China, largely because it broke three long-standing “rules” of how major tech acquisitions usually unfold.

First, the speed of negotiations was astonishing. From initial contact to final agreement, negotiations reportedly took just over ten days. For a multibillion-dollar cross-border acquisition, this was nothing short of a blitzkrieg. By comparison, Meta’s WhatsApp deal took nearly a month to negotiate, and the acquisition of Scale AI dragged on for more than two months. Such speed suggests not recklessness, but urgency—on both sides. In the race toward AI agents, hesitation itself has become a strategic liability.

Second, the valuation of Manus defied conventional metrics. Manus was founded only three years ago. By early 2025, its annualized revenue stood at roughly $125 million. Yet Meta was willing to pay a price that implied an extraordinary premium over its recent Series B valuation of $500 million. This forced investors and entrepreneurs alike to rethink the value of the AI application layer. The message was unmistakable: AI products that solve real problems and can be deployed at scale are now worth far more than abstract technological promises.

Third, the deal laid bare the global fate of Chinese entrepreneurial talent. Within China, reactions ranged from bewilderment to anger. Some media outlets labeled the acquisition a “defection,” arguing that China was losing one of its most promising AI teams to an American tech giant. According to reports, Chinese authorities are now reviewing the deal over potential technology export control violations.

A Familiar Script: Chinese Capital, American Exit

The financing history of Manus’s parent company, Butterfly Effect, reads like a contemporary tech parable. In February 2023, ZhenFund led a seed round at a $14 million valuation. By August of the same year, another round—again anchored by ZhenFund—pushed the valuation to $50 million. In November 2024, a consortium including Sequoia China and Tencent joined the Series A at an $85 million valuation. Up to that point, it was still a hopeful “Chinese story”: Chinese founders, Chinese capital, and the prospect of building a global AI champion from within the Chinese ecosystem.

The inflection point came when dollar capital entered the picture. In April 2025, Silicon Valley stalwart Benchmark Capital led the Series B round, catapulting the valuation to nearly $500 million. Months later, Meta swooped in. The arc—from Chinese incubation to American acquisition—has become increasingly common, and increasingly controversial.

Why the Meta-Manus Deal Is Good for the United States—But Not Simple

From a US strategic perspective, Meta’s acquisition of Manus appears, at first glance, to be unequivocally positive. It brings cutting-edge AI agent technology, top-tier engineering talent, and a promising product suite firmly under American ownership. In the context of the US-China AI competition, that looks like a win.

Yet the reality is more complicated. In the United States, the deal has also generated controversy and pushback. The primary concerns revolve around geopolitics, national security, and cybersecurity risks inherent to AI agents — especially those with Chinese origins.

Some experts warn that the transaction could intersect with Beijing’s technology export control regime, depending on whether restricted AI technologies were developed in China and transferred overseas without proper authorization. Others raise concerns reminiscent of the TikTok debate: could the Chinese government, directly or indirectly, gain access to sensitive data or influence the platform?

Meta has taken extensive mitigation measures. All Chinese investors have been fully bought out, eliminating ongoing Chinese ownership. Manus will shut down its China-facing products and operations. Employees in China will either be relocated or fully cut off from sensitive systems. AI models will remain geofenced, and the staff joining Meta will not have access to customer data.

Even so, skepticism persists. US lawmakers such as John Cornyn have previously pushed legislation to prohibit or require notification of US investments in certain sensitive technologies in China to ensure American ingenuity does not end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. In an era of intensifying technological rivalry, trust is a scarce commodity.

The Real Question: How Open Should America Be to Acquiring Chinese companies?

The deeper issue raised by the Meta–Manus deal is not whether it should have happened, but how the United States should handle similar deals going forward.

There is a viable middle path between naïve openness and reflexive exclusion. In principle, the United States should welcome acquisitions of Chinese companies—or joint ventures with them—provided American entities retain ownership and control. What is needed is a robust, transparent framework of pre- and post-acquisition security reviews, compliance obligations, and legal liabilities. If credible evidence emerges that an acquired company or individual has endangered US national security, penalties should be swift and severe.

If implemented correctly, Meta’s acquisition of Manus could serve as a precedent for such a framework.

This approach matters far beyond AI software. In China, industries such as solar energy, batteries, and robotics are locked in hyper-competition so intense that profits have nearly vanished. Even Beijing has acknowledged the problem, with the 2025 Central Economic Work Conference referencing an “anti-involution” campaign and signaling a need to address supply-demand imbalances. Yet for many of these companies, survival requires moving beyond China’s borders. The United States has become a top destination, as firms seek American buyers, partners, or joint ventures—and increasingly relocate manufacturing capacity and talent stateside.

For the United States, this can be a strategic boon in the form of access to advanced technologies, an influx of skilled workers, and a boost to its manufacturing revival and job creation. Yes, the national security risks are real, but rejecting all such opportunities would be self-defeating. To “throw the baby out with the bathwater” would only weaken America’s competitive position.

Opening Doors to Acquiring Chinese Companies While Guarding Core National Security Interests 

The lesson of the Meta–Manus deal is not that globalization is over, but that it must be governed more intelligently. The United States can—and should—pursue a policy of “opening doors while maintaining robust national security control.” Doing so would allow America to absorb global talent and innovation while safeguarding its strategic interests.

This is not only possible; it is necessary. In an era when AI agents may soon shape economies, societies, and even geopolitical outcomes, leadership will belong to those who can combine openness with vigilance. Meta’s bold acquisition has exposed the tensions inherent in that balance. Whether the United States can resolve them wisely will shape not just the future of AI, but the trajectory of global technological power.

About the Author: Jianli Yang 

Dr. Jianli Yang is a research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is the founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China and author of For Us, The Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth and It’s Time for a Values-Based “Economic NATO.”

Image: QINQIE99/shutterstock

The post How Meta’s Acquisition of Manus Shows a New National Security Formula appeared first on The National Interest.