March 21, 2025 | Beijing — In a strategic move to strengthen its AI dominance, Beijing is throwing its weight behind emerging artificial intelligence startup Manus, aiming to replicate the success of DeepSeek, which recently disrupted Silicon Valley with cost-effective AI models rivaling U.S. tech leaders such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Manus Gains Momentum with State Support
This week, Manus, a Beijing-based AI startup, secured a crucial regulatory clearance from China’s Cyberspace Administration for its generative AI assistant, Monica, allowing a domestic rollout. The endorsement comes as the Beijing municipal government intensifies efforts to bolster homegrown AI champions amidst escalating competition with Western firms.
State broadcaster CCTV showcased Manus’s AI agent on national television, marking the company’s first major exposure on Chinese state media. The broadcast compared Manus’s autonomous AI agent — which can independently execute tasks and make decisions — to popular AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek R1, emphasizing reduced user prompting requirements.
China’s Search for the Next DeepSeek
Since DeepSeek R1 rattled U.S. markets earlier this year by surpassing OpenAI’s ChatGPT on the Apple App Store, Chinese investors and government bodies have been scouting for the next domestic disruptor. Manus has emerged as a frontrunner, thanks to its viral product demos on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), where it touted claims of building the world’s first “general AI agent.”
Strategic Partnership with Alibaba’s Qwen AI
To accelerate its deployment, Manus has inked a partnership with Alibaba Group, integrating with Alibaba’s Qwen AI models, a key player in China’s growing AI ecosystem alongside Baidu’s ERNIE Bot and Tencent’s Hunyuan AI.
The collaboration could supercharge Manus’s expansion within China’s highly regulated AI landscape, where authorities demand strict adherence to content moderation rules to avoid politically sensitive or prohibited outputs.
A Waiting List in the Millions
Currently operating on an invite-only basis, Manus’s AI agent reportedly has a waitlist exceeding 2 million users. Analysts suggest this pent-up demand reflects China’s broader push to foster homegrown alternatives to U.S. AI platforms amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Beijing’s AI Ambitions: A Global Tech Challenge
Beijing’s investment in Manus underscores China’s larger ambition to challenge the AI leadership of the United States. Backed by state capital and strategic partnerships with tech giants like Alibaba and Huawei, China’s AI sector is closing the gap with global leaders, prompting U.S. policymakers to reconsider their AI infrastructure and innovation strategies.
The Bigger Picture
This development signals that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and China Development Bank may further support startups like Manus as part of Beijing’s broader “Next-Generation AI Development Plan.” Meanwhile, U.S. firms such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google DeepMind continue to face challenges navigating copyright disputes and tightening regulations at home.
With AI increasingly seen as a linchpin of economic and national security, Beijing’s strategic alignment with AI startups like Manus is likely to further intensify the U.S.-China AI rivalry heading into 2025.
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