Discussion

• @niubi Bill Bishop on x

  Why did Manus CEO and chief scientist go back to Beijing when summoned? Did they really not think they would be in trouble? https://www.ft.com/... China reviews $2bn Manus sale to Meta as founders barred from leaving country [image]

• @burakgurel1980 Burak Gürel on x

  With success come new challenges: “Further scrutiny of the transaction highlights growing concern about what Chinese leaders have described as ‘selling young crops’ to foreign buyers in strategic areas such as AI.” https://www.ft.com/...

• @michael7ucci Michael Lucci on x

  Communist China has hatched a bold and innovative new strategy: lock up our best entrepreneurs! The next Chinese entrepreneurs will leave and never look back. It's time to choose a side of the Pacific: 🇺🇸Freedom, innovation, #1 tech ecosystem 🇨🇳Open-air prison

• @niubi Bill Bishop on x

  This week's episode of Sharp China. We discussed the Manus situation near the end, before the latest FT story came out, did not know top two execs were back in the PRC https://sinocism.com/... [video]

• @dccockfoster Duncan Cock Foster on x

  Founding a company in China is a crazy thing to do You have all of the normal stress and difficultly of being a founder. Then, if you beat the odds and succeed, the government will imprison you 😂 Imagine how many big companies China would have if they were founder friendly

• @linahuaa LinaHua on x

  So the Manus founders transferred the company to Singapore and sold their business to Meta for $2b. They thought they were being clever for circumventing China's tech export controls, but you don't fuck with the CCP like that. You WILL be made an example of, so others don't get

• @beffjezos @beffjezos on x

  Founders of AI companies are simply not safe in China. They are a property of the government.

• @zephyr_z9 @zephyr_z9 on x

  Apparently, Xiao and Peak can't leave China and are detained [image]

• @himanshustwts Himanshu on x

  So both Cofounders of Manus (Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao) are reportedly barred from leaving China. It's beyond my mind how'd you still think to stay in mainland after Meta acquisition? The only good theory possible can be if they are cooking something new in China itself.

• @theonejvo Jamieson O'Reilly on x

  Well, I guess we all know what the post WW3 operation paperclip equivalent will look like.

• @denisewu Denise Wu on x

  Manus put in a lot of effort into their “Singapore-washing”. What were they thinking of going back to China, knowing exactly what would happen?

• @deanwball Dean W. Ball on x

  If we were smart we'd see this as a major self own by China, as natsec-brained public policy so often is. The message the government is sending is: if you ever want to found a company, especially one that makes money on software, move to Singapore first (easier to get GPUs too!).

• @bytebot Colin Charles on x

  And here I thought they were based in Singapore... but it looks like they went back for this meeting that they were summoned to. Manus is already integrated within tools like Instagram, so it would seem this acquisition is complete, why the review? Also, FB (Meta) has strict

• @niubi Bill Bishop on x

  I didnt think the Manus top execs would be so naive as to go back to the PRC. expect they will have to spit back out a lot of what they made. The regulators should go after the VCs too who structured this deal to “wash” Manus into a Singapore company, to make it clear that this

• @pstasiatech Paul Triolo on x

  Yes, how would the US government react if leading lab wanted to relocate to China? Oh wait, there are laws that would prevent this....

• @kakashiii111 @kakashiii111 on x

  Any acquisition, merger, or acquihire involving a Western company, especially a U.S. company, will be taken seriously by Chinese authorities. The acquihire approach has angered them and has therefore led to the prohibition of Manus founders from leaving China. From their

• @kevinsxu Kevin S. Xu on x

  China has been serving up these “own goals” for years. And we haven't been able to take advantage on any policy level, organic migration aside. The over demonization of everything PRC in DC, from drones (legitimate) to garlic (hmmm...) to people (needs lots of nuance) is our own

• @chinaselect @chinaselect on x

  The CCP's response to the @ManusAI deal sends a clear message: there is no such thing as a truly “private” tech company in China. Even when firms seek to globalize or exit the Chinese market, the CCP retains leverage, through regulatory review, ownership structures, and direct

• @thezvi Zvi Mowshowitz on x

  When our side tries to melt down our public policy and drive all the AI innovation and companies away out of fear at least it does so regarding one of the three companies that matter most. China is doing it over... Manus.

• @macastel3 Marco Castelli on x

  China is sending a message to AI founders: don't sell to US companies Like a sort of golden share Similar to what US told many European companies to dismiss businesses in China or taking money from China Possibly Meta will have to cancel the purchase

• @deanwball Dean W. Ball on x

  To be clear, self-defeating, simian natsec policy is one of the things the U.S. and Chinese civilizations share in common. If I were an AI policy planner in Beijing, I would be popping champagne (or the domestic equivalent) over the DoW-Anthropic stuff.

• @chamath Chamath Palihapitiya on x

  The China AI Complex is much more nuanced than what it appears on the surface (open source/open weights, cheaper/faster/better value props) when you factor in the CCP and their long term objectives. Also, I mostly stopped hearing about Manus after OpenClaw. Do folks use this?

• @thegeorgepu George Pu on x

  You get a phone call. Report to Beijing. China's NDRC wants to see you. You sit down across from them. They know everything. The restructuring. The Singapore move. The $75 million from Benchmark. The $2 billion from Meta. The 80 employees you laid off in Beijing. The