Meta paid $2 billion for Manus in December 2025. By June, it had built a wall to keep Manus away from its own systems.
Since early June, Manus employees have been locked out of Meta's internal data systems, and Meta staff can no longer use Manus tools on internal projects, according to Bloomberg reporting. Meta has also told employees to sunset the platform entirely — a reversal that comes just six months after the acquisition closed.
The most plausible reading is regulatory pressure. Chinese-founded companies with access to large US platform data are a known focus of CFIUS — the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — and a $2 billion deal giving a Chinese-origin AI service direct access to Meta's internal systems would have been a clear candidate for review. The fact that the firewall went up before any public announcement of a wind-down suggests the separation was required, not chosen.
A $2 billion investment that can't touch your own systems is either a regulatory haircut or a very expensive due-diligence failure. Possibly both.