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Meta reportedly moves to unwind $2B Manus deal after Beijing’s demand

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Meta has begun dismantling its $2 billion acquisition of Manus, completing an operational separation from the Chinese-founded AI startup and halting data sharing between the two companies. This is the most concrete step yet toward complying with a divestiture order Beijing issued roughly two months ago on national security grounds.

Meta has cut Manus off from its internal systems, Bloomberg reported, preventing employees from using Manus tools for internal projects as the two companies move toward a full separation.

Meanwhile, according to May reports, the co-founders of Manus have held preliminary discussions about raising approximately $1 billion from outside investors to reclaim the startup from Meta, a move that could pave the way for a Chinese joint venture structure and an eventual listing in Hong Kong, a venue that has seen a surge in AI listings this year for Chinese AI startups like MiniMax and Zhipu.

What was supposed to be a landmark exit for Chinese AI is quickly unraveling. The move underscores Beijing’s determination to retain control over strategically sensitive technology, regardless of a company’s offshore incorporation.

In addition to the forced divestiture, Chinese authorities have since expanded travel restrictions to researchers and executives at private firms, requiring government approval before heading abroad. China is also tightening its grip on foreign capital, with reports indicating that top AI firms, including Moonshot AI, StepFun, and ByteDance, will need government sign-off before accepting U.S. investment, adding another layer to Beijing’s sweeping effort to control its AI sector.

Even as Meta moves to sever ties with Manus, the agentic AI startup has continued to ship new features, rolling out integrations with Similarweb and Shopify.

Manus drew widespread attention with a viral agent demo relocated its staff to Singapore in mid-2025 before announcing a $2 billion acquisition by Meta in December. Chinese regulators moved to scrutinize the transaction earlier this year, citing potential violations of technology export controls and foreign investment rules.

Manus investors, including California-based venture firm Benchmark, have already received their proceeds from the acquisition, while Asian backers, including Tencent, HSG, and ZhenFund, have indicated they will cooperate with the unwinding process, according to the WSJ.

Manus’ Chinese origins with parent company Butterfly Effect drew scrutiny on both sides of the Pacific, with Senator John Cornyn questioning whether American capital should flow to a Chinese-linked firm.

Meta and Manus did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

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May & Baker disowns ‘fraudulent M&B Equity Stake’ investment scheme

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May & Baker Nigeria Plc has dissociated itself from the ‘M&B Equity Stake’ investment scheme, noting that the purported investment opportunity is fraudulent and unauthorised by the company.

The company disclosed this in a regulatory filing signed by Adetoun Abiru, Secretary of Marina Nominees Limited, on Tuesday, urging the investing public to disregard promotional materials that promise daily or guaranteed returns for the equity stake.

This followed the circulation of “fraudulent materials” through social media, messaging applications and other online platforms, purporting to offer an investment opportunity described as an “M&B Equity Stake.”

“The company hereby unequivocally dissociates itself, its subsidiaries and affiliates from the purported ‘M&B Equity Stake’ investment scheme and any person, platform, website, group, publication or other communication promoting or soliciting funds in connection with the scheme,” May & Baker said.

The consumer foods manufacturer stated that any person, platform, flier, message, website or other communication soliciting funds under the guise of May & Baker Nigeria Plc is unauthorised and was not issued by or on behalf of the company.

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It advised Nigerians to disregard the communications, refrain from making any payment or disclosing personal information in response to the ‘M&B Equity Stake’ investment materials.

“Report any such fraudulent activity to the appropriate authorities,” the pharmaceutical and beverage company said, urging the investing public not to disclose their financial information to anyone.

The company confirmed that it is not currently undertaking any Rights Issue, Public Offer or other capital-raising exercise involving the solicitation of investments from the public.

ALSO READ: May & Baker posts 215% profit growth in mid 2017 result

“Any future capital-raising exercise will be formally communicated through the Company’s authorised communication channels and conducted in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and the requirements of the Nigerian Exchange Limited and other relevant regulatory authorities,” the company added.

It further urged its shareholders, customers, employees and members of the general public to remain vigilant and verify any purported investment opportunity or communication relating to the company through its official communication channels before taking any action.


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Warp’s new system is an out-of-the-box software factory for AI development

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Companies are still grappling with exactly how software development should work in the AI area, but one early answer is the so-called software factory. Essentially an agent loop that’s built around the traditional stages of software development, the software factory approach has become a popular way for companies to remake their engineering organizations for the AI era.

Now, a system from Warp could make that transition a lot easier. On Tuesday, the AI coding company introduced Warp Factories, a new system designed to make building and operating AI software factories as easy as possible.

Operating as an infrastructure layer, Warp Factories gives companies a simple environment for deploying agents and a roadmap for how to use them.

To be clear, many companies are already having success with the factory model without any help from Warp. Stripe has been particularly public about its technical progress, developing a “minions” system to automate development within its own codebase. Ramp has made similar progress, developing a background agent that can monitor its own code after it is deployed.

An analytics screen from Warp FactoriesImage Credits:Warp Factories

As Warp CEO Zack Lloyd sees it, the target market for Warp Factories will be smaller companies without the resources to develop a system from the ground up.

An analytics screen from Warp FactoriesImage Credits:Warp Factories

“[If you look at] things like running your agents in the cloud and steering those agents as they run, or bringing the work that they’re doing into your local environment, or setting up memory that goes across those agents, or setting up evals that go across those agents — it’s actually a huge infrastructure undertaking to do this right,” Lloyd told TechCrunch.

In Warp Factories, the architecture is already built out of the box, with many of the most difficult decisions already made. Warp’s system is based on the standard phases of software development (triage, specification, implementation, review, and verification) but the agentic approach means any of those steps can be automated.

Users can choose their own coding model and harnesses as necessary; the system works as well with Codex as Claude Code. It also integrates with ticketing systems like Linear and Jira, and messaging systems like Slack and Teams, in an effort to plug in seamlessly to existing workflows.

Beyond just shipping code, Warp Factories will also give managers the tools to track how well the factory is performing. With all the agents running in the same environment, it’s easy to compare performance metrics for different configurations, and to keep an eye on the overall token spend. Warp Factory also allows for self-improvement loops to optimize the overall system, automating management of the process itself.

Even so, Warp Factories is not built to completely replace software engineers — just give them an easier way to collaborate with the new agentic workforce. In Lloyd’s own experience, there are still a lot of tasks that require a human at the wheel.

“We automate like 30% of our tasks, 30 to 35% on a weekly basis,” Lloyd told TechCrunch, “and as models improve, as the context improves, as the harness improves, I think that that number is going to go up over time.”

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