World Liberty Financial partners with WorldClaw to integrate Chinese AI

The conflict of interest that does not dare to speak its name. World Liberty Financial, the crypto company backed by the Trump family, has partnered with WorldClaw, a Hong Kong-based platform launched earlier this year that provides access to artificial intelligence models developed by Chinese companies in Washington's sights. The affair, revealed by Reuters, embarrasses an administration which continues to denounce the rise of Chinese AI, while allowing a company 38% owned by the president's family to profit financially from it.

WorldClaw: 43 Chinese models out of 90, including two deemed close to the army by the Pentagon

Of the 90 models listed by WorldClaw, 43 come from Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Baidu and Z.ai, according to the review conducted by Reuters. The platform also distributes American models, notably from OpenAI and Anthropic.

The disturbing detail? This is because Alibaba and Baidu are on the Pentagon's list of Chinese companies considered to be linked to the military (an official designation which targets groups deemed close to the Chinese military-industrial complex), while Z.ai is subject to export restrictions from the Commerce Department, a commercial blacklist which limits its access to certain American technologies. DeepSeek and Moonshot, also available on the platform, have also been accused by American officials of having stolen technology from American AI companies. None of this stopped WorldClaw from opening its doors wide to these same players.

USD1, the stablecoin that makes the Trump family money on every payment

WorldClaw users can pay for their access with USD1, the dollar-backed stablecoin issued by World Liberty. A choice that is not trivial. Each payment made via this token indirectly benefits the Trump family, a 38% shareholder in the company.

Reuters was unable to establish the details of the financial arrangement between the two companies, nor the exact amount received by the presidential family from these transactions, but the mechanism itself poses no mystery: the more payments WorldClaw processes in USD1, the more the presidential family receives its share.

Seven experts in Chinese technology, international trade and government ethics interviewed by the agency judge the collaboration to be out of step with the official line of the White House. One of them went so far as to describe the affair as “hypocritical”, given the efforts displayed by the administration to contain the Chinese technological threat.