This is a very interesting development, which potentially demonstrates the power and strategic impact of U.S. outbound investment restrictions into Chinese AI firms. Here's a brief history of the saga of @ManusAI: - Manus began as a China-based start-up that makes AI agents, which reportedly utilized Anthropic's Claude models. In April 2025 Manus raised $75 million from U.S. investors at a $500 million valuation. - After news broke of its April fundraising round, Manus abruptly moved its headquarters from China to Singapore--presumably to avoid running afoul of U.S. restrictions on outbound investments into Chinese AI firms, which likely would have required the U.S. investors to divest from Manus following an inevitable investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department. - Over summer 2025, Manus reportedly shut down all its China operations: it closed its offices in China, stopped its work with Alibaba on new AI agents, and abandoned plans to release a version of its app in China. - On December 29, 2025, @alexandr_wang announced that @Meta is acquiring Manus. If the reporting is true that Manus completely abandoned its ties to China (a critical "if"), this story shows the power of U.S. outbound investment restrictions: they not only stop U.S. investors from supporting China's AI ecosystem, but they also incentivize sophisticated AI firms like Manus to abandon the Chinese AI ecosystem in favor of the U.S. AI ecosystem, which has access to deeper capital markets and more AI computing power (the latter due to U.S. export controls on AI chips). Neither the U.S. government nor the Chinese government would have permitted Meta to acquire Manus if it had remained based in Beijing. But once Manus fled China, likely as a result of U.S. outbound investment restrictions, the Chinese government lost its influence over Manus and its say in the transaction.

Huge move by the FCC yesterday, restricting the sale of foreign-made drones in the US. This is the first time the FCC has issued a class-based regulation blocking an entire category of products (as opposed to only products from designated companies). The regulation does three things: 1️⃣ Bans the sale of any new models of drones made outside the United States; 2️⃣ Bans the sale of any new models of drones that contain a critical component made outside the United States; 3️⃣ Bans the sale of all new DJI or Autel products (not limited to drones) in the United States, regardless of where they are made or what components they contain. The regulation has no impact on the sale of existing products. It does permit DoW/DHS to issue waivers for new models if necessary - and this will be necessary for certain allied companies/countries, but should be manageable if implemented in a smart way. This action sends a clear signal: the United States must have a secure and resilient drone supply chain going forward - which means both blocking the import of insecure/untrusted drones, and incentivizing the production of secure products in the United States. The FCC regulation does both, and is a creative example of how technology protection measures can simultaneously protect national security and promote reindusrealization. We need more actions like this!

Great to be on @Bannons_WarRoom today discussing the risks of exporting AI chips to China.