For decades, the playbook for Chinese tech founders was simple: build in China, raise US capital, go global. But the era of frictionless cross-border AI development is over, and one of the earliest beneficiaries is now the one putting up the walls.
Chen Tianqiao, the billionaire founder of Shanda Group, has imposed a complete separation between his AI company MiroMind's China and US operations — no sharing code, no sharing data, and minimal movement of people or assets. Teams in each region will operate independently. Chen says the decision was a direct response to the fallout from Meta's blocked acquisition of the AI startup Manus.
In March, Chinese regulators contacted Chen's team after Meta announced its deal to buy Manus, warning that the company could not unilaterally transfer technology out of the country. Chen told Bloomberg Businessweek that the issue was resolved after he explained his internal firewall plan, but he's pushing ahead with the split anyway — even after Beijing formally killed the Manus deal on Monday.
"I used to believe we could bring together Chinese and global talent to contribute to humanity's future," Chen said. "But after the Manus incident, we had to fully implement the firewall." He acknowledged the move feels like "cutting off our own hands and feet," but called it a necessary compromise in the current regulatory environment. "The international environment is extremely complex," he added. "Companies have no choice but to pick a side."
The decision comes as China tells AI startups to reject US capital after Meta's Manus deal, a sign that regulators are tightening the screws on cross-border AI investment. Chen is already feeling the pressure from both sides.
Chen has poured $100 million into MiroMind so far, part of a $2 billion commitment from Shanda Group to what he calls "discoverable AI." The company employs more than 60 scientists across offices in Singapore, Tokyo, and Seattle, and plans to launch its first external funding round in the second half of this year.
Not everything is going smoothly. A key scientist, Tsinghua University associate professor Dai Jifeng, recently left MiroMind, and the two sides gave conflicting accounts of the split. MiroMind and a star researcher and her ugly public feud over IP and relocation highlighted the growing tensions inside the company.
Chen was among China's earliest tech founders to benefit from US capital. Shanda Group went public on the Nasdaq in 2004, raising $152 million, and Chen became a billionaire at age 30. He has lived abroad for 16 years — first in Singapore, then in California. Today, for Chinese AI founders, that path is getting much harder to follow.