Anthropic’s Mythos Freeze Opens The Door For Asian Challengers Sakana AI And 360

Asian AI firms are moving into the gap left by Anthropic as U.S. export controls keep Mythos and Fable 5 beyond global reach.

Key Points:

Sakana AI

TechCrunch reported Jun. 27 that Sakana AI, a Tokyo startup, launched Fugu earlier this week, while Chinese cybersecurity firm 360 reportedly unveiled Tulongfeng on Wednesday.

Sakana said Fugu, named after the Japanese word for blowfish, can stand beside Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos Preview, and the company built it to coordinate access to other models through APIs.

A Sakana spokesperson told TechCrunch the timing was “entirely coincidental,” adding that “Sakana Fugu is something we have been building since last year,” while noting that attention rose because the launch overlapped with the Mythos and Fable restrictions.

The company is targeting Japanese businesses and government agencies that want less exposure to export controls, but it is not calling the shift a permanent break from U.S. AI.

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AI Controls

Sakana’s position reflects comments from co-founder Ren Ito, who wrote in Project Syndicate that U.S. policy should preserve access for close allies and warned that AI should be developed together, not hoarded.

Co-founder and CEO David Ha framed Fugu as a broader infrastructure strategy, writing on X that “Orchestration Models are the next frontier, beyond bigger models,” and that “Access to top models can disappear overnight.”

China’s 360 took a sharper line, as Reuters reported that founder Zhou Hongyi called vulnerability-finding AI a national strategic asset and warned of “one-way transparency” when some actors hold advanced cyber tools and others do not.

The launches follow the U.S. order that forced Anthropic to restrict Mythos and Fable access two weeks earlier, a move that turned export policy into a live test for global AI buyers.

That history matters because Anthropic had been growing quickly before the restrictions, saying its run-rate revenue crossed $47 billion in May, but its Asian enterprise exposure remains undisclosed.

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