Trump's World Liberty Partners with Chinese AI Model Platform

World Liberty Financial, the crypto company in which the Trump family holds a 38% stake, is partnering with the Hong Kong-based AI platform WorldClaw. That platform offers access to 90 AI models and accepts World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin as a payment method. Nearly half of those models come from Chinese tech companies that the US government considers a risk to national security, Reuters reports.

In brief:

• 43 of the 90 AI models on WorldClaw were developed by Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and DeepSeek.
• The Trump family owns 38% of World Liberty and profits from the use of the USD1 stablecoin.
• Experts consider the partnership to be at odds with the Trump administration’s policy towards Chinese tech companies.

Chinese models on platform that accepts USD1

Research by Reuters shows that 43 of the 90 models on WorldClaw were developed by Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai, DeepSeek and Moonshot. Several of these companies are on US lists because of national security or technology transfer concerns. WorldClaw also offers access to models from American companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

World Liberty earns from the partnership through the USD1 stablecoin, which WorldClaw users can use to buy access to the AI models. USD1 is pegged to the US dollar and backed by, among other things, US government bonds. The Trump family is entitled to a share of the interest earned on those holdings. How stablecoins as a means of payment are gaining popularity is a broader trend that is also emerging beyond this platform.

Experts point to contradiction with Trump policy

Seven experts in Chinese technology, trade policy and government ethics say the partnership runs counter to the policy the Trump administration is pursuing towards Chinese tech companies. Sam Bresnick, affiliated with the Georgetown University Center for Security and Emerging Technology, says he finds it hypocritical: “While the US government is trying to respond to the rise and danger of Chinese AI, it seems contradictory to use WorldClaw to make money from those same Chinese tools.”

According to Reuters, the partnership is not illegal. Reuters was also unable to determine the financial arrangements between World Liberty and WorldClaw, nor how much the Trump family has earned from the platform so far. Trump’s two eldest sons have publicly promoted WorldClaw, and World Liberty director Ryan Fang acts as an external adviser to the platform.