World Liberty Financial, backed by President Trump, is working with WorldClaw, which offers AI models from Chinese firms on the US Entity List, raising regulatory and security questions.
World Liberty Financial, the crypto project backed by President Donald Trump, has partnered with a Hong Kong-based AI company whose models include those from Chinese firms the US government has flagged as national security risks, Reuters reported Monday.
The companies are collaborating to expand use of World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin, which WorldClaw accepts as payment for access to its AI models. World Liberty executive Ryan Fang also serves as an adviser to WorldClaw, according to the report.
WorldClaw offers access to dozens of AI models. Of its 90 models, 43 come from Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Baidu, and Z.ai, the Chinese AI firm formerly known as Zhipu AI. It also offers models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman said WorldClaw is independent and noted that major US firms also offer Chinese and American AI models.
"This is a common and widely accepted approach," Wachsman told Reuters.
In January 2025, Z.ai was added to the Commerce Department's Entity List, restricting its access to US technology. In June, the Pentagon designated Alibaba and Baidu as "Chinese Military Companies Operating in the United States," barring the Defense Department from doing business with them.
"Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy," an Alibaba spokesperson told Reuters, calling the designation "arbitrary and capricious" and said the company would sue to have it removed.
It is unknown how much the Trump family has earned from the WorldClaw partnership or the financial terms between the companies. Ryan Fang advises WorldClaw, while Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have promoted it.
Donald Trump Jr. posted on X on May 5 that WorldClaw had launched WorldRouter, a service offering access to over 300 AI models, settled in USD1 with World Liberty Financial. The tweet said users could pay in USD1 or lock WLFI tokens for premium tiers.
The news comes as several Chinese AI firms available on WorldClaw have been accused of distillation attacks on US AI developers. In February, Anthropic accused DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax of using roughly 24,000 fraudulent accounts to generate more than 16 million Claude exchanges through model distillation, a technique where one AI model learns from another's outputs.
In June, Anthropic urged Congress to tighten export controls and penalize large-scale model extraction.
"We believe combating the threat of illicit distillation requires coordinated action between government and industry, and we will continue working with Congress and the administration to maintain American AI leadership," an Anthropic spokesperson told Decrypt.
The partnership places a Trump-backed crypto project at the center of a growing debate over US-China technology competition, stablecoin adoption, and the security of AI supply chains. Alibaba, one of the Chinese firms whose models are available on WorldClaw, carries an AlphaScala Alpha Score of 50/100, reflecting mixed sentiment among market participants.
World Liberty did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment on the regulatory implications of the partnership.
Prepared with AlphaScala editorial tooling from the source reporting linked above. Indexable analysis may include a cited Alpha Score value. Publishing checks screen each story before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.