Manus resumes independent operations as the Meta deal unwinds

Manus, the AI agent maker that Meta had agreed to buy for a reported sum above $2 billion, told users it was “transitioning back to independent operations” — the operational step that follows China’s National Development and Reform Commission ordering the deal unwound in April, in what lawyers had called the first use of Beijing’s foreign-investment security review to reverse a completed acquisition.

Manus said data generated by users who joined on or after 29 December 2025, the date Meta’s acquisition closed, would be backed up between 11 and 23 August, deleted from Meta’s systems over 23–24 August, and restored to Manus’s own infrastructure from 25 August, with those users losing access for about two days during the transition. Users active before the acquisition date were told the migration would not affect them. The company said data would be held in the United States and Singapore, offered backup and restoration tools ahead of the cutover, waived charges during the backup window, and promised “welcome-back” bonuses once accounts were restored.

The notice is the practical unwinding of a deal that had already been substantially integrated — reporting at the time put roughly 100 Manus staff inside Meta’s Singapore office, with the company’s founders holding executive roles — and confirms that the NDRC’s order was enforced rather than negotiated away. It leaves Manus, one of 2025’s most closely watched general-purpose agent products, operating again as an independent company after eight months inside Meta.

On 1 September, after the migration window closed, Manus said it had “formally resumed independent operations” under its founding team, acknowledging that some users had needed to back up and restore data and had lost access during the transition. The company framed the reset around future plans — deeper integration into daily workflows and more autonomous agents — rather than the circumstances that forced it.