Asian AI startups launch Mythos-like models as Anthropic’s export ban drags on

On Wednesday, the Chinese cybersecurity company made 360 reportedly revealed Tulongfeng, an AI tool that he claims can battle Anthropic’s Mythos. That’s the cybersecurity-focused AI model that the Trump administration is said to be so powerful has currently banned it and its more restricted versionMyth 5, from non-Americans.

Earlier that same week, Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based AI startup Fugu launcheda model named after the Japanese word for puffer fish. The company says this groundbreaking AI model “stands shoulder to shoulder with leading models like Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos Preview.” It is also designed for agents, with the ability to orchestrate access to other models through their APIs.

The two new Asian model products come as the US government’s ban continues. Are order that appears anthropic of global access to Mythos and Fable took place two weeks ago.

A spokesperson for Sakana AI told TechCrunch that the release of the new model was “completely coincidental,” but that hasn’t stopped the company from taking advantage of the moment. The website advertises “providing border capacity without the risk of export controls.”

“Sakana Fugu is something we’ve 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 value at the frontier at Sakana AI. We were confident in the product on its own merits; the timing just happened to coincide with a moment when it attracted more attention than we expected,” the spokesperson said of the launch during the Mythos/Fable export ban.

Sakana, co-founded in 2023 by former Google researchers Ren Ito, Llion Jones and David Ha, makes affordable generative AI models that work well with small data sets and are optimized for the Japanese language and culture.

While the company Fugu is targeting Japanese companies and government agencies looking to reduce their exposure to stricter export controls, it is not yet proclaiming a sustainable shift away from American AI in Asia.

“American models remain important to Asia,” the spokesperson said, a view consistent with comments made by co-founder Ren Ito during the G7 summit in Evian last week, where AI access and export controls were one of the central topics. “We would characterize the current moment in those terms rather than as a permanent realignment toward a particular group of players.”

Co-founder of Sakana Run Ito elaborated on that vision in an op-ed published last week in Project Syndicate. He urged the US federal government, which believes it “The first priority should be to maintain access,” for America’s closest allies, arguing that “AI should not become a technology that is hoarded; it must be one that is developed together.”

David Ha, co-founder and CEO of Sakana, described Fugu as more than just a land grab during a vulnerable moment for an American competitor. It is designed to coordinate agent usage among many models.

“Orchestration models are the next step, next to larger models,” he wrote on X. Relying on a single provider for the national infrastructure is a risk that will be impossible to ignore due to recent export controls, he said.

“Access to top models can disappear overnight,” he wrote. “Collective intelligence is the practical protection against this concentration of power.”

While Tokyo-based Sakana positioned Fugu as a hedge strategy, a way to maintain access to border AI, not replace it, China’s 360 did not hedge.

The Chinese company reportedly unveiled two AI security tools. Tulongfeng is designed to automatically discover software vulnerabilities, and Yitianzhen is built to automate cyber defense and incident response.

However, the product launch carried a message. According to Reuters, 360 founder Zhou Hongyi described AI for vulnerability detection as a national strategic asset, flagging what he called the risk of “one-way transparency,” a situation in which some actors had access to advanced vulnerability detection capabilities while others could not.

Anthropic was on a historic growth trajectory. The US AI lab said its run-rate revenues exceeded $47 billion in May 2026. How much of that depends on Asian business customers is not publicly known.

But in the weeks since the export order went into effect, at least two companies, one in Tokyo and one in Beijing, have stepped into the space it left behind. Even if American companies could regain trust if this ban were ever to end, local alternatives, trained to better understand local language and nuance, are already filling the void.

360 did not respond to a request for comment.