Trump-Backed Crypto Firm Works With AI Platform Offering Chinese Models Flagged by U.S. Government

Reuters reported Monday that Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is working with WorldClaw, an AI company that offers models from Chinese tech firms the Trump administration has flagged on national security grounds. The collaboration is aimed at expanding use of World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin. WorldClaw accepts USD1 as payment for access to its AI models, and World Liberty executive Ryan Fang also serves as an adviser to WorldClaw. WorldClaw is based in Hong Kong and provides access to dozens of AI models. Reuters said 43 of its 90 models were developed by Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Baidu and Z.ai. The platform also offers models from OpenAI and Anthropic. World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman said WorldClaw is independent and pointed out that major U.S. firms also offer both Chinese and American AI models. "This is a common and widely accepted approach," he told Reuters. The report comes after U.S. agencies took action against some of the Chinese firms named on WorldClaw. In January 2025, Z.ai, formerly Zhipu AI, was added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which restricts access to U.S. technology. In June, the Pentagon designated Alibaba and Baidu as "Chinese Military Companies Operating in the United States," blocking the Defense Department from doing business with them. Alibaba pushed back on that designation, telling Reuters that it is "not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy." The company called the designation "arbitrary and capricious" and said it would sue to get it removed. It is unclear how much the Trump family has earned from WorldClaw, or what the financial terms are between the companies. The report said Ryan Fang advises WorldClaw, while Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have promoted it. The article also noted broader scrutiny of Chinese AI companies available on WorldClaw. In February, Anthropic accused DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax of using roughly 24,000 fraudulent accounts to produce more than 16 million Claude exchanges through model distillation, a process in which one AI model learns from another model’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.