Tencent introduces ultra-fast AI model Hunyuan Turbo S

Chinese technology giant Tencent has introduced a new artificial intelligence model Hunyuan Turbo S, which, according to the company, can respond to queries faster than the buzzworthy DeepSeek-R1. This event reflects the growing pressure of DeepSeek’s success on major players in the Chinese market.

According to Tencent, Hunyuan Turbo S can generate responses within a second, which favorably distinguishes it from “slow-thinking models that need to ‘think for a while before answering’,” such as DeepSeek R1 and Hunyuan T1. The company also claims that in terms of capabilities in knowledge, mathematics, and reasoning, Turbo S is on par with DeepSeek-V3, whose chatbot recently surpassed ChatGPT in the number of downloads in app stores.

The success of DeepSeek R1 and V3 models, which became the first Chinese developments to gain wide recognition in Silicon Valley, has forced Chinese technology giants to accelerate the development of new versions of their AI models, which began after the emergence of ChatGPT in late 2022.

Last month, shortly after DeepSeek-R1 shook up the global technological order and triggered a sell-off of AI stocks outside China, e-commerce giant Alibaba released the Qwen 2.5-Max model, claiming its superiority over DeepSeek-V3 in all metrics.

Tencent also emphasized that the operating costs of the new Turbo S are several times lower than those of previous versions. This decision reflects the influence of DeepSeek’s strategy, based on open source and low prices, which is forcing other leading Chinese AI companies to reduce the cost of their services for users.