Manus founders seek $1B financing to unwind $2B Meta takeover
The co-founders of artificial intelligence startup Manus are exploring a massive independent funding round to comply with orders from Beijing regulators demanding the complete reversal of the company’s recent acquisition by Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Manus’s three primary architects—Xiao Hong, Ji Yichao, and Zhang Tao—are actively negotiating with external investors to raise approximately $1 billion in fresh capital, according to a Bloomberg News report published Thursday.
The capital injection would be utilized alongside the founders’ personal funds to repurchase the agentic AI operation from the American social media giant, following a strict regulatory blockade imposed by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The discussions center around an independent financing round that would value the breakaway AI outfit at a minimum of $2 billion.
This threshold aligns directly with the valuation established when Meta closed its acquisition of the company just five months ago in December.
If successful, the structured buyout would effectively transition the transaction from a simple regulatory unwind into a massive corporate recapitalization.
The incoming funds would be allocated to buy out Meta's equity interest, finance the complex legal and technological separation of data infrastructure, and preserve operational capital for the standalone enterprise through its next phase of development.
The forced unwinding underscores the intensifying geopolitical friction surrounding the cross-border transfer of high-performance software assets.
The Singapore-headquartered startup, originally structured under the corporate name Butterfly Effect, had relocated its executive core outside of mainland China following a U.S.-led venture capital infusion.
Despite operating under a Singaporean legal entity at the time of the Meta deal, Chinese regulators intervened in late April, citing potential infractions of domestic outbound investment frameworks and raising national security concerns regarding the systemic loss of strategically vital artificial intelligence technology.
Under the current framework being explored, the founders would restructure Manus as a Chinese joint-venture entity to satisfy Beijing’s jurisdictional requirements, completing a rare and high-profile corporate decoupling.