On April 27, 2026. An AI agent startup got blocked from selling to foreign buyers. The reason wasn't valuation. It was data governance. Image credit: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3k11q9qe1o The Trigger In April 2026, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) – through its investment arm – issued a prohibition notice against a foreign acquisition of Manus, an AI agent startup building the orchestration layer between large language models and real‑world b