The rapid era of AI entrepreneurship can be explained with a single case.

A Wuhan-based AI company, Manus, went from product launch to being acquired by a global tech giant in just 9 months. It was launched in March this year and closed the deal in December. The acquisition price was approximately $2 billion.

What does this company do? The core is developing truly functional intelligent agents—capable of research, coding, data analysis, and completing complex tasks independently. Last year, its annual revenue surged to $100 million, and it had created 80 million intelligent agents in total. For a certain tech giant, this perfectly filled the last missing piece in their application layer.

However, there was a very practical turning point before this deal. In July, Manus made a major decision—to relocate the company from China to Singapore. The team of 120 was reduced to 40 core technical staff, and offices in Beijing and Wuhan were all closed.

Some might ask, why relocate? Simply put, under the current environment, the approval process for Chinese domestic companies to be acquired by US tech giants is almost a dead end. So this step was actually a necessary precondition for financing. Thanks to overcoming this obstacle, the acquisition negotiations progressed rapidly—settled in just 10 days. It became the third-largest acquisition in the history of this tech giant, second only to WhatsApp and a certain AI platform.

After the acquisition, founder Xiao Hong was directly promoted to vice president of the tech giant, joining the executive team and overseeing related business areas.

This transition is quite interesting. Xiao Hong, who started as an entrepreneur struggling in Wuhan—worried about the market, bearing risks, and searching for direction—became a key figure within the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem. Decision-making power, resource allocation, business boundaries—all of these previously under his control are now integrated into the operation order led by Silicon Valley.

This not only demonstrates that his abilities have been globally recognized but also reflects a reality: for entrepreneurs aiming to turn Chinese technology into global products, this has almost become the only feasible path. But for Xiao Hong personally, this is not the end, only a new beginning.