While the US government blocks Anthropic’s most powerful models from reaching non-Americans, Asian AI startups are stepping in to fill the gap — and they’re not being subtle about it.
Chinese cybersecurity firm 360 recently unveiled Tulongfeng, an AI tool it says goes head-to-head with Anthropic’s Mythos. That’s the same model so capable that the Trump administration banned its export (along with its sibling Fable 5) two weeks ago.
Tokyo-based Sakana AI launched Fugu — named after the Japanese word for blowfish — which the company says matches leading models like Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos Preview. It’s designed for agents, able to orchestrate access to other models through their APIs. The research behind it was presented at ICLR this spring.
A Sakana AI spokesperson told TechCrunch the timing was “entirely coincidental.” That’s a hard sell, especially since the company’s website now advertises “delivering frontier capability without the risk of export controls.”
Sakana, co-founded in 2023 by former Google researchers Ren Ito, Llion Jones and David Ha, builds affordable generative AI models optimized for Japanese language and culture. The company targets Japanese businesses and government agencies looking to reduce exposure to tightening export restrictions.
Still, Sakana isn’t declaring permanent independence from US AI. “US models remain important to Asia,” a spokesperson said — a view co-founder Ren Ito echoed at last week’s G7 summit in Evian, where AI access and export controls were central topics.
The real question is whether this moment creates lasting change or just a temporary scramble. If Asian models continue matching US capabilities, the export ban could end up ceding an enormous market that US labs never fully recover.
