Tencent-led Chinese consortium completes $2 billion buyback of Meta's stake, regaining control of Manus, the global AI benchmark

A major AI acquisition drama spanning China and the United States and lasting for half a year has witnessed a crucial reversal. Exclusive news from foreign media The Information shows that a Chinese capital consortium composed of Tencent, Sequoia China, and ZhenFund plans to spend $2 billion (approximately 13.5 billion yuan) to buy back all the shares of the general AI agent enterprise Manus held by Meta. This case, where domestic capital takes over a leading AI project after a foreign investment security review at home halts an acquisition by an overseas giant, will reshape the capital and industrial landscape of the global general Agent track.

01

The Acquisition Comes to an Abrupt Halt:

Regulatory Red Lines Cut Off Meta's Acquisition, and the Two Sides Complete a Thorough Business Separation

The starting point of the story is set at the end of 2025. At that time, the global AI industry received significant news. Meta announced the completion of a full acquisition of the domestic general agent Manus with a total transaction value of $2 billion, ranking as the third - largest acquisition under Zuckerberg. With its differentiated ability to autonomously operate web pages, automatically complete complex multi - step tasks such as ticket booking, industry research, and quantitative analysis, Manus quickly swept across the globe in 2025. It is the first generally recognized commercially available general AI agent in the industry, with high market popularity, which also made Meta determined to acquire this core target in the track.

However, this seemingly certain cross - border transaction encountered a fatal turning point in April 2026. The Office of the Working Mechanism for the Security Review of Foreign Investment of the National Development and Reform Commission issued an announcement, legally rejecting this foreign acquisition and ordering the two parties to the transaction to cancel the entire acquisition process. After the regulatory measures were implemented, Meta quickly launched an internal separation process. According to a previous report by Bloomberg, as of early June, Meta had completed the isolation of data, business, and underlying algorithms from Manus, completely cutting off the data interconnection channel between the two parties. The operations of the two companies are completely independent, and they no longer share user information and underlying technical resources.

The invalidation of the acquisition leaves a core remaining problem: Meta holds all the shares of Manus, and the early investors have distributed the acquisition proceeds to the fund contributors and are reluctant to return the dividends. Against this background, the core domestic investors have finalized a new plan: raise new funds to buy back the shares and fully take back the shares in Meta's hands.

02

Buying Back at the Original Price of $2 Billion:

With a 4 - 5 - fold Surge in Revenue, Chinese Capital Locks in High - Quality Assets at a Low Price

The total consideration for this buy - back maintains the original price of $2 billion when Meta made the acquisition. The investment camp shows a clear pattern of differentiation between China and the United States. Tencent, Sequoia China, and ZhenFund, as the founding - round investors of Manus, have led the buy - back plan throughout. The three parties had previously distributed the acquisition proceeds to their respective LPs. This time, they will not recover the dividends that have been distributed. Instead, they will use the funds from a new - phase fund to complete the acquisition. The early important US investor in Manus, Benchmark, has clearly withdrawn and given up participating in this round of buy - back.

The financial data highlights the great cost - effectiveness of this buy - back: Just before Meta's acquisition, Manus' annualized revenue was only $100 million. During the six - month integration period supported by Meta's traffic and advertising channels, the company's annualized revenue soared to $400 - 500 million, with the revenue scale directly increasing by 4 to 5 times. Based on the current revenue volume, the actual valuation of the enterprise has far exceeded the $2 - billion acquisition cost. Chinese capital is equivalent to taking back a leading AI asset with high - speed growth at a discounted price.

With Benchmark's withdrawal, Tencent, Sequoia China, and ZhenFund will jointly hold the vast majority of Manus' shares. The control of the enterprise has completely returned to the Chinese capital camp, and the boundaries of the capital layout of China and the United States in the general AI track have been officially clarified.

03

Reconstructing the Structure for a Hong Kong IPO:

Establish a New Domestic Joint - Venture Entity to Balance Commercialization at Home and Abroad

The share buy - back is only a short - term action. The investors have simultaneously planned a complete long - term development path, with the core goal of an independent listing in Hong Kong, and the transformation of the domestic compliance structure is also being promoted simultaneously. According to the capital plan, Manus will reconstruct its main structure and establish a Chinese - foreign joint - venture enterprise registered in China. The investors will complete the capital increase in US dollars. This joint - venture model can not only meet the domestic regulatory compliance requirements but also ensure the legal shareholding of domestic and overseas capital, clearing the compliance obstacles for a Hong Kong listing.

In July 2025, Manus' core business team moved to Singapore to build an overseas operation entity and launched a stepped subscription product priced from $20 to $200, which is open to global C - end users and corporate customers. Even though it has completed data isolation from Meta, Manus has built a mature overseas paying - user system and has a stable and independent self - financing ability. This is also the core confidence for domestic capital to invest billions in the buy - back.

Looking back at the financing history, Manus' parent company, Butterfly Effect, completed four rounds of financing before Meta's acquisition. In April 2025, after a $75 - million Series B investment, the post - investment valuation was $500 million. Tencent, Sequoia China, ZhenFund, and Benchmark jointly participated. In just over a year, the enterprise's revenue has increased several times. If the Hong Kong listing is successfully implemented, domestic early - stage investment institutions will have a second window for value realization.

04

Steered by a Local Startup Team:

Three - Dimensional Layout of Commercialization, Algorithms, and Products Strengthens the Technological Foundation

The continuous capital investment in Manus is supported by a complete local founding team. The three core leaders cover the three core sectors of commercialization, underlying algorithms, and global products respectively. The founder and CEO, Xiao Hong, born in 1993 and graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, founded the enterprise service tool Yiban Assistant in the early years. He has been deeply involved in commercial operation for many years. His early project received investment from Tencent, and he is fully responsible for building Manus' global commercialization system. The chief scientist, Ji Yichao, born in 1992, leads the research and development of the underlying algorithms of the general agent and is the core builder of the company's technological barriers. The product partner, Zhang Tao, has first - hand product experience from ByteDance and Meituan's Guangnianzhiwai. He takes into account the needs of users in both the domestic and overseas markets and is responsible for the product implementation and iteration.

Different from the mainstream conversational large - scale models in the market, Manus features the ability of an agent to autonomously execute complex tasks, filling the gap in the practical general Agent market. This is also the core reason why Meta made a large - scale acquisition at the beginning and why domestic capital is reluctant to let the assets flow overseas.

05

In - Depth Industry Observation:

Domestic General AI Bid Farewell to Dependence on Overseas Acquisitions, and Self - Control Becomes the Mainstream Trend

This buy - back transaction worth billions has symbolic industry significance against the backdrop of intensified global AI competition. For a long time, high - quality domestic AI startups have often faced the industry pain point of being acquired by overseas technology giants and the outflow of core technologies and user resources. The Manus incident has created a new development model.

First, the implementation of the foreign investment security review mechanism has achieved results, safeguarding the security bottom line of the cutting - edge general AI industry and preventing the core independently developed agent technology from completely falling into the hands of overseas enterprises. Second, Internet giants and local venture capital have formed an industrial synergy. They no longer regard acquisitions by overseas giants as the only exit path and are willing to invest large amounts of funds to support the independent development of local AI teams.

Currently, the details of the buy - back transaction are still being negotiated among multiple parties, and the final implementation schedule has not been publicly disclosed, but the overall transaction framework has been finalized. In the future, Manus will break away from the Meta system and be controlled by Chinese capital. Relying on the domestic joint - venture structure, it will operate on two fronts: maintaining the revenue growth of the overseas subscription business on one hand and steadily promoting the Hong Kong listing plan on the other.

The general AI agent is regarded as the core track in the next stage of artificial intelligence. As a benchmark enterprise in the track, after the share buy - back is implemented, domestic capital will firmly grasp the leadership of the leading enterprise, and the domestic general AI industry will officially enter a new stage of self - control and independent development.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Ren Cheng T Ke” (ID: Java_simon), written by Xiao T and published by 36Kr with authorization.