Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial Works With Hong Kong Venture Selling AI Models From Restricted Chinese Firms

Nearly half the AI models on WorldClaw come from Chinese firms the administration has flagged, and the venture takes the Trump family’s stablecoin as payment.

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by President Donald Trump, is collaborating with a Hong Kong-based company that resells artificial intelligence models built by Chinese firms the U.S. administration has flagged over national security, Reuters reported Monday. The venture, WorldClaw, was founded earlier this year and accepts World Liberty’s crypto tokens as payment.

A Reuters review of WorldClaw’s website found that 43 of the 90 available models, close to half, came from Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai and other Chinese technology companies the administration says pose risks to national security and intellectual property. The Defense Department designates Alibaba and Baidu as Chinese military-aligned companies, a label that bars the Pentagon from doing business with them. Z.ai, formerly Zhipu AI, sits on the Commerce Department’s entity list, which presumes denial for U.S. firms seeking export licenses to sell to it. Models from DeepSeek and Moonshot, both accused by administration officials of stealing U.S. intellectual property, are also on offer. WorldClaw carries dozens of American models too, including from OpenAI and Anthropic.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

The financial link is the part that matters for anyone tracking the family’s crypto revenue. The Trump family owns 38% of World Liberty and earns from the sale and use of its $WLFI governance token and USD1 stablecoin, which is backed by assets like Treasury securities that generate interest the family is entitled to a share of. When WorldClaw customers pay in USD1, World Liberty makes money. Reuters could not establish the terms of the arrangement or how much the family has earned through it.

Nothing about the collaboration is illegal, and cheaper Chinese models are gaining traction globally, including among U.S. tech companies. Still, seven experts on Chinese technology, trade and government ethics told Reuters the arrangement runs counter to the administration’s stated stance. Sam Bresnick of Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology called it hypocritical to profit from Chinese AI tools while the government works to counter them. Peter Jeydel, who leads sanctions and trade controls at Troutman Pepper Locke, framed it as either a tension for a China-hawk administration or a fit with a business-first approach. Daniel Remler of the Center for a New American Security flagged risks to users including Chinese government monitoring, censored outputs and malicious code that can hijack AI agents.

World Liberty’s due diligence has drawn scrutiny before, and Senator Elizabeth Warren has pushed to bar the family from crypto profits. The family’s World Liberty token earnings top $1.4 billion, the largest share of $2.3 billion in total crypto revenue, Reuters reported in June.

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