By Lawrence Delevingne
BOSTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is collaborating with a Hong Kong-based venture offering artificial-intelligence models developed by Chinese companies the U.S. administration has flagged for national security concerns.
WorldClaw, founded earlier this year, offers customers access to a suite of AI models and accepts World Liberty’s crypto tokens as payment. The Trump family, through its ownership stake, earns revenue from the use of World Liberty’s tokens.
A Reuters review found that 43 of the 90 models available through WorldClaw’s website, or nearly half, were developed by Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai and other Chinese technology companies the Trump administration says pose risks to national security and intellectual property. WorldClaw also offers access to dozens of models from U.S. firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
There’s nothing illegal about World Liberty’s collaboration with WorldClaw or with WorldClaw’s relationships with the Chinese companies. And such Chinese models, which are typically less expensive, are gaining traction globally, including among U.S. tech companies.
Still, seven experts on Chinese technology, trade and government ethics said the business collaboration — and the potential profits for President Trump through World Liberty — runs counter to his administration’s stance towards Chinese tech companies.
“As the U.S. government tries to respond to the rise and threat of Chinese AI, it seems hypocritical to go out through WorldClaw to use these tools from China to try and make a bunch of money,” said Sam Bresnick, a fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
Reuters could not establish the details of World Liberty’s financial arrangements with WorldClaw or how much money the Trump family has made from crypto payments on the platform. The president’s two eldest sons have publicly promoted WorldClaw, and a World Liberty executive has worked as an advisor to WorldClaw.
World Liberty makes money from the use of its USD1 stablecoin, including when WorldClaw users elect it as their mode of payment for access to AI models. Like other U.S. dollar-based stablecoins, USD1 is backed by traditional assets like U.S. Treasury securities so that it maintains a constant value. The Trumps are entitled to a percentage of the interest earned on those assets.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that “there are no conflicts of interest” in the relationship between World Liberty and WorldClaw and that “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public.”
David Wachsman, a spokesman for World Liberty, said WorldClaw was an independent company and noted that major U.S. firms offer AI from Chinese as well as American tech companies. “This is a common and widely accepted approach,” he said in an email.
A WorldClaw spokesperson said in a statement that the company “helps American AI companies reach international users” and that “making a model available does not constitute an endorsement of its developer.”
CONCERNS GROW OVER AI ARMS RACE
The Chinese AI models offered by WorldClaw are generally legal for individuals and businesses to use in the United States. But some of the Chinese companies producing them face U.S. government restrictions because of national-security concerns.
The AI models offered by WorldClaw include those made by tech giants Alibaba and Baidu, which the U.S. Department of Defense has designated as Chinese military-aligned companies. The designation blocks the Pentagon from doing business with these Chinese firms.
Other models come from Z.ai, formerly Zhipu AI, which is on the Department of Commerce’s “entity list,” a designation which severely restricts access to U.S. technology. Any U.S. company looking to sell products or services to companies on the entity list would have to apply for an export license, with a presumption of denial.
According to the government listing, Z.ai advances China’s “military modernization through the development and integration of advanced artificial intelligence research,” which is “contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests.”
Also on offer are models from DeepSeek and Moonshot, Chinese tech companies which Trump administration officials have recently accused of stealing intellectual property from U.S. AI rivals.
Baidu, Z.ai, DeepSeek and Moonshot did not respond to requests for comment. Alibaba, Baidu and Z.ai have disputed the U.S. government’s determination that they are aligned with the Chinese military, while the Chinese government has disputed the claims of technology theft.
“Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy,” an Alibaba spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The spokesperson said the company’s inclusion on the Pentagon’s list was “arbitrary and capricious” and that Alibaba would sue to demand its removal.
The Trump administration’s response to fast-advancing Chinese AI models remains in flux.
Early in his second term, Trump said it was important for the U.S. to beat China in technology and AI development. More recently, China and the U.S. have grown increasingly concerned about an AI arms race and tried to reduce tensions ahead of the planned summit next month between Trump and President Xi Jinping.
“On one hand, people could say this is a China-hawk administration, and there is a tension with this type of business collaboration,” said Peter Jeydel, an attorney who leads the sanctions and trade controls team at Troutman Pepper Locke in Washington. “On the other hand, it can be argued that this Trump presidency has been less aggressive in targeting Chinese companies in favor of a business-first approach. This collaboration would be consistent with that.”
The Departments of Commerce and Defense did not respond to questions from Reuters about WorldClaw.
TRUMP SONS PROMOTE WORLDCLAW ON X
Little is publicly known about WorldClaw. The company said through its spokesperson that it is an “independently owned and operated AI company” and its website says it is “not offered, managed, or controlled in any way” by World Liberty or its affiliates.
But the two companies benefit from working together. The Trump family owns 38% of World Liberty and makes money through the sale or use of its crypto tokens, the $WLFI governance token and USD1 stablecoin. WorldClaw accepts USD1 as payment for services, among other forms of cryptocurrency.
The WorldClaw spokesperson said that Ryan Fang, World Liberty’s head of growth, has been a “helpful external adviser and supporter of WorldClaw, particularly regarding USD1 adoption, partnerships, and expanding global access to AI services.” The spokesperson said Fang’s role was “strictly advisory.”
The president’s sons — co-founders of World Liberty — have promoted WorldClaw on social media platform X. Donald Trump Jr., said in May that he would meet winners of a WorldClaw contest at Mar-a-Lago, the family’s club in Florida, while Eric Trump hailed the collaboration in a post as “the future of finance.”
So far, the Trump family’s earnings from World Liberty token sales total more than $1.4 billion, the largest piece of the $2.3 billion the family has made from crypto, Reuters reported in June.
While Trump sons Don Jr. and Eric operate the family business, known as the Trump Organization, the president retains ownership through a trust.
CHINESE AI MAY PRESENT SECURITY RISKS
WorldClaw’s website says its WorldRouter tool, which functions as an aggregator providing access to various AI models, has more than 10,000 users, with more than 50 million requested tasks a day.
WorldClaw is also developing an application for use of AI agents to perform personal tasks such as ordering food or summarizing emails, according to its website.
Daniel Remler, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and until recently a policy advisor at the U.S. State Department, said the Chinese AI models offered on WorldClaw could expose users to various risks: monitoring by the Chinese government, outputs that are censored, and the injection of malicious code that can hijack AI agents.
The company says on its website that WorldClaw may share user inputs with the companies that provide its AI models.
The WorldClaw spokesperson said that the company takes security seriously and applies privacy and security safeguards to its platform.
(Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Suzanne Goldenberg)
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