Trump Family Crypto Firm Tied to Chinese AI Models US Government Called a Security Risk

President Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is working with an AI company that offers models from Chinese tech firms his administration has flagged over national security concerns, Reuters reported Monday.

According to Reuters, the companies are collaborating to expand the 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.

Hong Kong-based WorldClaw offers access to dozens of AI models, with 43 of its 90 models developed by Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Baidu, and Z.ai. It also offers models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman said WorldClaw is independent and noted that major U.S. firms also offer Chinese and American AI models.

“This is a common and widely accepted approach,” Wachsman told Reuters.

In January 2025, Z.ai, formerly Zhipu AI, was added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, restricting its access to U.S. 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 it would sue to have it removed.

It’s unknown how much the Trump family has earned from WorldClaw or the financial terms between the companies. World Liberty executive Ryan Fang advises WorldClaw, while Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have promoted it.

The news comes as several Chinese AI firms available on WorldClaw have also been accused of distillation attacks on U.S. 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 in which 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.