Bloomberg: China strictly prohibits AI unicorns from taking "US capital"! ByteDance and Moonshot AI are both named.

According to an exclusive report by Bloomberg today (24th), China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has recently issued clear directives to several heavyweight AI startups in the country: a comprehensive ban on accepting US capital unless granted special government permission. This move, seen as a retaliatory measure against Meta's acquisition of the Chinese AI startup Manus, has directly impacted the multi-billion dollar unicorn Moonshot AI, StepFun, which is preparing for a Hong Kong IPO, and even the tech giant ByteDance. (Previous coverage: Anthropic accuses Chinese AI firms like DeepSeek of scraping Claude, using 24,000 fake accounts to generate 16 million queries) (Background: Anduril founder Palmer Luckey warns: China's AI deployment speed far exceeds that of the US) After years of US-imposed AI and semiconductor investment restrictions on China, Beijing has finally unleashed a "mirror-image" devastating countermeasure, precisely severing the remaining technological capital ties between the US and China. According to an exclusive report published by Bloomberg on April 24, 2026, multiple regulatory bodies, including the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), have issued strict guidelines to several private technology and AI companies in the country over the past few weeks: "Unless explicit government approval is obtained, no capital from the United States may be accepted during any financing process." This regulatory red line has been drawn directly across China's top AI companies, casting a bombshell on their future capital operations and IPO plans. According to reports, companies known to have received these explicit instructions include: - Moonshot AI: This highest-valued AI large model unicorn in China is currently actively preparing for an IPO and seeking a new round of financing at a valuation of up to $18 billion; it must now completely exclude US capital participation. - StepFun: As another leading large model enterprise currently considering a listing in Hong Kong, it has also received notice of these capital restrictions. - ByteDance: Even this super giant, which owns AI businesses such as Doubao, has been explicitly prohibited from introducing new US investors through any form, including "secondary share transfers," without approval. Sources indicate that the direct trigger for Beijing's rare and tough stance is the recent acquisition of the China-backed AI agent startup Manus by US tech giant Meta. This acquisition has caused significant shock within China's top leadership. Authorities are deeply concerned that this behavior—"acquiring under the guise of foreign investment to poach technology and talent"—will lead to the outflow of core AI technologies painstakingly cultivated domestically, thereby endangering national security. Currently, the NDRC and other departments have initiated a strict inter-agency review of the transaction. This ban marks a shift toward "symmetrical decoupling" in US-China tech relations. Over the past 20 years, China's internet and tech startups have been highly dependent on venture capital (VC), university endowments, and pension funds from the US. However, with the US implementing export controls and entity list sanctions, coupled with China's proactive defense, this capital pipeline has effectively been severed. Market analysts believe that the new regulations will significantly increase the financing difficulty for high-valuation AI companies and drive up their compliance costs. In the future, Chinese AI firms like Moonshot AI will be forced to accelerate the restructuring of their domestic entities and shift their fundraising radar entirely toward domestic industrial capital, Hong Kong funds, and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds that are actively expanding in Asia. While emphasizing "AI+" as an engine for economic growth, the Chinese government is also using iron-fisted measures to end the disorderly expansion of foreign capital in sensitive technology sectors.