Trump Family Crypto Firm Linked to Chinese AI Models Flagged by US
Key Points
- WorldClaw offers 43 of 90 AI models from Chinese developers including Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai, DeepSeek, and Moonshot.
- World Liberty Financial, backed by President Donald Trump, accepts USD1 stablecoin as payment for WorldClaw's AI model access.
- Z.ai was added to the Commerce Department's Entity List in January 2025, and Alibaba and Baidu were designated as Chinese Military Companies by the Pentagon in June.
Alibaba disputed the military company designation, with a company spokesperson telling Reuters the classification was "arbitrary and capricious" and stating that "Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy." The company said it would pursue legal action to challenge the designation.
World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman defended the arrangement, telling Reuters that "This is a common and widely accepted approach" and noting that major U.S. firms also offer Chinese and American AI models. Wachsman emphasized that WorldClaw operates independently.
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The collaboration between the Trump-aligned company and WorldClaw occurs against a backdrop of concerns about Chinese AI firm practices. 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 in which one AI model learns from another's outputs. An Anthropic spokesperson told Decrypt in June that "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."
The arrangement demonstrates a disconnect between stated national security positions and commercial practices. While the Trump administration has moved to restrict access to these Chinese AI models on national security grounds, the same models remain accessible through World Liberty Financial's partnership with WorldClaw, with World Liberty's stablecoin serving as the payment mechanism. No information has been disclosed regarding the financial terms between the companies or total earnings the Trump family has received from WorldClaw.
Related coverage: 30-Year Treasury Yield Hits 5.33%, Highest in 19 Years on Deficit Surge
Market Outlook
The partnership between World Liberty Financial and WorldClaw may face increased congressional scrutiny as tensions between the Trump administration and Chinese AI firms intensify. Regulatory authorities could seek to clarify whether stablecoin payments to foreign AI platforms constitute circumvention of export controls, potentially affecting similar arrangements across the broader crypto-finance sector.
Sources: Decrypt and other international news outlets.
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