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Hello reader,
Identity is a tricky thing. Take it from me – I sometimes say I’m Northern Irish, Irish, or British, depending on who’s listening.
Manus learned just how complex identity can be last week when China announced it was blocking Meta’s US$2 billion acquisition of the AI agent firm.
Image credit: Made by Tech in Asia with the help of AI
China-founded Manus had changed its headquarters to Singapore in 2025 ahead of its deal with Meta. But that wasn’t enough to stop Beijing from intervening in the deal in an attempt to stop Chinese AI intellectual property (IP) from being transferred to a US company.
This has cast the spotlight on the implications for AI founders with Chinese roots building globally. The decisions they make in their companies’ early days around structure, IP, and where to build may define their firms for years.
In our top AI read this week, our team spoke to founders and investors navigating the fallout.
Dennis Wilder, a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Initiative for US-China Dialogue, sees China’s move as a message. “This action is designed to send a signal to Chinese wiz kids not to try to work outside of China on this stuff, particularly with the large US players,” he told Tech in Asia.
The founders our team spoke to had already started adjusting – the writing was on the wall from the moment China launched its investigation and when Manus’ founders were banned from exiting China.
Identity, it turns out, isn’t something you redomicile your way out of.
Peter Cowan, engagement editor
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