BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Tencent on Thursday released a new AI model that it claims can answer queries faster than global hit DeepSeek-R1, in the latest sign the startup's domestic and overseas success is putting pressure on its larger competitors in China.

The Hunyuan Turbo S is able to reply to queries within a second, distinguishing itself "from DeepSeek R1, Hunyuan T1, and other slow thinking models that need to 'think for a while before answering'", Tencent said in a statement.