NEW YORK –
Chinese officials are reviewing Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus for possible technology control violations, FT reported on Tuesday.
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Meta Platforms will pilot paid subscription tiers across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp while folding capabilities from its recent Manus acquisition into those packages, GlobalHeadlinez has learned. A company spokesperson confirmed the impending product tests and described the paid plans as providing expanded features and AI capabilities to users, including AI agents that can assist with content creation, messaging and workflow tasks.
The move pairs a product-pricing experiment with a high-profile acquisition now under regulatory scrutiny abroad: Chinese officials are reviewing Meta’s purchase of Manus for possible technology control violations, and the company’s Manus-based AI agents are slated to be scaled into subscription offerings. Meta bought Manus in December for a reported $2 billion – an early bet on AI agents that followed the startup’s fund-raising and product build-out across messaging and productivity tools – and will combine the startup’s general AI agents with its existing models and features as part of the subscription effort.[1]
Meta says Manus’ technology will help users “unlock more productivity and creativity” within its apps, according to a company spokesperson.
Transaction details and product scope
- Acquisition: Manus, a Singapore-based developer of AI agents founded in China; purchase completed in December for a reported $2 billion in cash and stock, according to people familiar with the terms.
- Product test: Subscription models to be piloted across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp; Manus’ AI agents to be scaled within those plans, including as personalized assistants and behind-the-scenes automation tools.
- Existing products referenced: Llama models have been maintained as open-source; Vibes – an AI-powered short-form video feature – has been available free since its 2025 launch; the new subscriptions would preserve basic free access to Vibes while monetizing advanced editing, recommendation and automation features.
- Pre-existing paid product: Meta Verified, launched in 2023, remains a separate paid offering that provides verification and related services and will not be automatically bundled into the new tiers.
Strategic and commercial implications
Meta’s subscription test formalizes a longer-running shift in how large tech platforms approach revenue diversification as digital advertising growth becomes more cyclical and exposed to macroeconomic swings. The company confirmed the tests will involve tiered access to features and enhanced AI capabilities, and it said it will solicit user feedback as it implements the packages in select markets before any broader rollout.
Scaling Manus’ AI agents into paid plans signals an effort to convert recent AI investment and acquisitions into directly monetizable product lines, rather than treating AI primarily as a background infrastructure upgrade. For Meta, which has poured billions into both AI infrastructure and metaverse projects, the subscription tiers offer a way to demonstrate near-term commercial returns from its AI stack.
Bringing Manus’ agent suite into consumer-facing subscriptions also tightens the connection between Meta’s open and proprietary approaches to AI. The firm has previously developed the Llama family of language models and offered them as open-source resources; the subscription constructs described will sit alongside that open model approach and the separate Meta Verified product introduced in 2023, creating a layered ecosystem in which some AI capabilities are freely available to developers while higher-touch, productized agents are paywalled for end users.[2]
Regulatory environment and cross-border review
Chinese authorities have opened a review of the Manus acquisition focused on potential technology control breaches. While officials have not publicly specified which provisions are at issue, the process resembles prior reviews of cross-border technology deals that touch on advanced AI and data-processing capabilities.
That review places the deal within the scope of cross-border technology transfer and national controls, and it creates an external regulatory step that could affect how quickly Manus’ capabilities are integrated into global products. For Meta, the practical risk is less about deal reversal – which remains rare at this stage – and more about conditions on where Manus’ most advanced models can be trained, deployed or accessed from within mainland China-related jurisdictions.
GlobalHeadlinez places the corporate link to broader regulatory frameworks for readers: companies executing cross-border deals that involve advanced AI or dual-use technology now commonly face multijurisdictional oversight, which can include formal reviews of technology transfers and export-related controls. In China, those guardrails are increasingly articulated through national security and export-control rules administered under the Export Control Law of the People’s Republic of China, which can govern outbound transfers of certain algorithms, chips and data-intensive systems.
For companies building subscription revenue from newly acquired tech, such reviews represent a tangible procedural checkpoint that can delay or condition integration plans. Requirements can range from data-localization commitments to limitations on how specific code bases are shared across borders. For investors and corporate directors, these processes have effectively become part of the closing risk on AI-heavy deals, alongside the traditional competition and foreign-investment reviews in the United States and European Union.
Operational rollout and next steps
Meta said it will collect user feedback as it pushes forward with subscription pilots and that Manus’ agent suite will be offered within those paid tiers, initially in a limited set of languages and use cases before expanding more broadly. The company intends to keep basic access to existing creative tools while gating advanced AI-driven capabilities – such as multi-step content production, automated campaign management and higher-volume messaging assistance – behind subscription options.
Chinese officials are currently conducting a formal review of the Manus acquisition for possible technology control violations, and Meta is proceeding with product pilots and user outreach while that review is underway. For corporate investors and platform partners, the immediate status is: product testing active; Manus integration planned; regulatory review ongoing, with the pace of full-feature deployment partly contingent on the outcome of cross-border oversight processes.