Asian Model Launches Meet An Export-Control Opening

Asian AI startups are using US model-access restrictions as a commercial opening.

TechCrunch reported that Chinese cybersecurity firm 360 unveiled Tulongfeng, an AI tool it says can compete with Anthropic's Mythos.

Earlier in the same week, Tokyo-based Sakana AI launched Fugu, a frontier model named after the Japanese word for blowfish.

Sakana said the model stands shoulder-to-shoulder with leading systems such as Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos Preview.

Sakana Frames Fugu For Agents

Fugu is designed for agents and can orchestrate access to other models through their APIs.

Sakana is targeting Japanese businesses and government agencies that want frontier capability while reducing exposure to tightening export controls.

The company said the launch timing was coincidental, but its website advertised frontier capability without export-control risk.

A Sakana spokesperson said the product had been in development since last year and that the research behind it was presented at ICLR in the spring.

Sakana Says US Models Remain Important While Buyers Seek Optionality

Sakana did not claim that Asian customers are abandoning US AI providers.

The company said US models remain important to Asia, while describing the current moment as one in which buyers want resilience and optionality.

David Ha, Llion Jones and Ren Ito launched Sakana in 2023.

Ha and Jones previously worked at Google, while Ito had roles at Mercari and Stability AI.

The company focuses on lower-cost generative AI systems tuned for Japanese language and cultural requirements and designed to work with smaller datasets.

Capability Claims Need Independent Benchmarks

The source places the launches against the US decision to restrict Anthropic's Mythos and Fable 5 models for non-Americans.

Regional providers are marketing model availability as a feature while those restrictions limit access for non-American users.

The article did not include independent benchmark results for Tulongfeng or Fugu against Mythos, Fable 5 or other frontier systems.

It also did not disclose customer names, pricing, deployment dates or government procurement commitments for the new models.