Chinese artificial intelligence startup Manus on Thursday registered its China-facing AI assistant and was featured for the first time in a state media broadcast, highlighting Beijing's strategy of boosting domestic AI firms that have received overseas recognition.
Since China's DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley by releasing AI models comparable to its US competitors but developed at a fraction of the cost, Chinese investors have been on the lookout for the next domestic startup with the potential to upend the global tech order.
Some have pointed to Manus. The company went viral on X a few weeks ago by releasing what it claimed to be the world's first general AI agent, capable of making decisions and executing tasks autonomously, with much less prompting required compared to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek.
Beijing is now showing signs that it will support Manus' rollout within China, echoing its response to DeepSeek’s success. State broadcaster CCTV on Thursday devoted television coverage to Manus for the first time, publishing a video on the difference between its AI agent and DeepSeek's AI chatbot.
Beijing's municipal government on Thursday announced that a Chinese version of an earlier Manus product, an AI assistant called Monica, had completed the registration required for generative AI apps in China, clearing an important regulatory hurdle.
Chinese regulators require all generative AI applications released in the country to abide by strict rules, partly designed to ensure these products do not generate content considered sensitive or damaging by Beijing.
Last week Manus announced a strategic partnership with the team behind tech giant Alibaba's Qwen AI models.
The move could bolster the domestic roll-out of Manus' AI agent, which is currently only available to users with invite codes and has a waiting list of 2 million, according to the startup.
In the markets, Hong Kong and China stocks declined on Friday and registered weekly losses, as tech shares tumbled on mounting profit-taking pressure.
The Hang Seng Tech Index slid 3.4% on Friday, and Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 2.1%. Both indexes registered back-to-back weekly losses for the first time since January.
In Hong Kong, chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation slid 7.5% to a one-month low, while market heavyweight Alibaba lost 3.5%.
China's blue-chip CSI300 index dipped 1.5%, ending the week with a 2.3% loss in its largest retreat since January. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.3%.
The tech sector also paced declines onshore. Mainland's tech-focused Star 50 Index dropped 2.1% and AI-related shares slipped 3%.
"It's normal to see some pullbacks at these levels after such a strong rally this year - this doesn't even qualify as a correction," said Dickie Wong, Kingston Securities executive director.
The optimism around China's “two sessions,” DeepSeek and President Xi Jinping's meeting with tech leaders has already been priced in with major indexes at current levels, prompting investors to take profit, he added.
The Hang Seng Tech index has lost 4.1% this week in a second week of decline - the longest losing streak since the opening weeks of the year.
However, the gauge is still up 26% year-to-date.
