Chinese cybersecurity firm 360 reportedly introduced Tulongfeng on Wednesday, an AI tool it asserts can rival Anthropic’s Mythos. Mythos is a cybersecurity-focused AI model reportedly deemed so potent that the US government, under the Trump Administration, has prohibited its export, along with its more restricted variant, Fable 5, to non-American entities.
Earlier in the same week, Sakana AI, an AI startup based in Tokyo, unveiled Fugu, a model named after the Japanese word for blowfish. The company states that this cutting-edge AI model is comparable to leading alternatives such as Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos Preview. It is also engineered for agents, offering the capability to orchestrate access to other models through their APIs.
These two new AI model offerings from Asian companies emerge as the US government’s export ban persists. The order, which restricts Anthropic’s global access to Mythos and Fable, was implemented two weeks prior.
A spokesperson for Sakana AI informed TechCrunch that the timing of their new model’s release was “entirely coincidental.” Nevertheless, the company has leveraged the situation, with its website promoting “delivering frontier capability without the risk of export controls.”
Regarding the launch amidst the Mythos/Fable export ban, the spokesperson elaborated, “Sakana Fugu is something we have been building since last year — the research behind it was presented at ICLR this spring, and it reflects an approach that is central to how we deliver frontier-level value at Sakana AI. We were confident in the product on its own merits; the timing simply happened to coincide with a moment that brought it more attention than we expected.”
Sakana, established in 2023 by former Google researchers Ren Ito, Llion Jones, and David Ha, specializes in developing affordable generative AI models. These models are designed to perform effectively with smaller datasets and are optimized for the Japanese language and cultural nuances.
While Fugu is primarily aimed at Japanese businesses and government agencies seeking to minimize their exposure to escalating export controls, the company has not yet declared a permanent shift away from US AI dominance in Asia.
Sakana co-founder Ren Ito expanded on this perspective in a recent op-ed published in Project Syndicate. He urged the US federal government to prioritize "preserving access" for its closest allies, contending that "AI should not become a technology that is hoarded; it should be one that is developed together."
David Ha, co-founder and CEO of Sakana, characterized Fugu as more than merely an opportunistic move during a vulnerable period for US competitors. He emphasized its design to coordinate agent usage across multiple models.
“Orchestration Models are the next frontier, beyond bigger models,” he posted on X. He argued that relying on a single provider for national infrastructure poses a significant risk, which the recent export controls have made impossible to disregard.
“Access to top models can disappear overnight,” he wrote, adding, “Collective intelligence is the practical hedge against this concentration of power.”
While Tokyo-based Sakana positioned Fugu as a strategic hedge to maintain access to frontier AI rather than replace it, China’s 360 adopted a more direct approach.
The Chinese firm reportedly unveiled two AI security tools: Tulongfeng, designed for automatic software vulnerability discovery, and Yitianzhen, built to automate cyber defense and incident response.
However, the product launch was accompanied by a clear message. According to Reuters, 360’s founder Zhou Hongyi declared vulnerability-finding AI a national strategic asset. He also highlighted the danger of what he termed “one-way transparency,” a scenario where certain actors possess advanced vulnerability-detection capabilities while others do not.
Anthropic had been experiencing remarkable growth, with the US AI lab reporting its run-rate revenue surpassing $47 billion in May 2026. The extent to which this revenue relies on Asian enterprise customers remains undisclosed.
Nevertheless, in the weeks following the export order’s implementation, at least two companies—one in Tokyo and one in Beijing—have moved to occupy the void it created. Even if US companies were to regain trust should this ban ever be lifted, local alternatives, specifically trained to better comprehend local languages and cultural nuances, are already effectively filling the gap.
360 did not respond to a request for comment.
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