On a recent weekday, the Beijing office of the company behind Manus, a popular artificial intelligence “agent”, was quiet. Most desks were empty. Its Chinese social media presence had been wiped clean.
Manus’s abrupt exit from China for Singapore came on the heels of a major US financing deal and marks a sharp reversal for the start-up, which just months ago was hailed as the next DeepSeek — further proof that China’s AI innovation matched Silicon Valley.
The multimillion-dollar investment deal led by top-tier US venture firm Benchmark and the Manus departure have sparked controversy and criticism on both sides of the Pacific. In China, the team behind Manus have been labelled “defectors” by some online media outlets and criticised for laying off local staff and shifting hiring to Singapore.