Four Stories That Explain Southeast Asia Right Now
This week’s episode is a news episode. No guests. Just four stories that I think every founder, investor, and operator in Southeast Asia should be paying attention to right now.
Here’s what we cover, and why each one matters.
1. China forced Meta to unwind a completed acquisition. Mid-honeymoon.
In December, Meta acquired Manus — the AI agent startup that went viral in 2025 as China’s answer to deep research tools. The deal closed. Manus’s website was already saying it was part of Meta.
On April 28th, Beijing’s NDRC told both parties to reverse it.
The Singapore-washing playbook — where…
The skinny
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