Manus AI Cuts Ties With Meta, Returns to Independent Operation From Its Singapore Base
Source: TechNode Global
Singapore has a habit of becoming the backdrop for the world's biggest AI stories, and the latest one involves a company that chose the city-state as its headquarters. Manus, the AI agent startup that relocated its base from China to Singapore in 2025, is now formally unwinding its short-lived ownership by...
Singapore has a habit of becoming the backdrop for the world's biggest AI stories, and the latest one involves a company that chose the city-state as its headquarters. Manus, the AI agent startup that relocated its base from China to Singapore in 2025, is now formally unwinding its short-lived ownership by Meta — deleting user data and returning to independent operation after Beijing blocked the US$2 billion acquisition.
The separation begins on August 23, when Manus will delete data generated by certain users on or after December 29, 2025, in a window running until August 24, Singapore time. The company says affected users can back up their data for free until August 23 and restore it from August 25, with bonuses offered after restoration. Manus is at pains to note this is part of the Meta separation, not a security incident.
The backstory is unusually dramatic. Meta announced its roughly US$2 billion acquisition of Manus in December 2025, months after the startup — founded in China in 2022 and later headquartered in Singapore — became one of the most talked-about names in agentic AI. Then in April 2026, China's National Development and Reform Commission ordered the deal cancelled through its foreign-investment security review office, citing concerns about technology flowing to the US. Completed acquisitions being unwound by regulators are rare anywhere; for a company with a Singapore address, this saga is a first.
The practical effects ripple outward. Users who registered through Apple ID or Facebook will only be notified in-app, and the deletion raises the question of how a company straddling two jurisdictions handles records of users who may never have consented to Beijing's review process. For Singapore's AI community, the episode is a reminder that a neutral base does not mean immunity from home-country regulation.
Why it matters for Singapore: Manus' decision to headquarter here was a win for Singapore's pitch as a neutral home for global AI companies, and its return to independent operation keeps that credential intact. But the saga shows that companies built in one jurisdiction and based in another can be pulled in both directions at once. How Manus handles the next chapter — its Singapore operations, its agent platform, and any future fundraising — will be watched closely by an ecosystem that increasingly hosts these cross-border AI stories.
