Mark Cuban has been an outspoken ally for AI advancement and early adoption. Many people were at one point, until the evils of AI started coming to the surface. And now Cuban has changed his stance.
Mark Cuban was once a major advocate for rapid AI adoption. He is now sounding the alarm on where the industry is heading and why he thinks a bubble is forming.
Now, Mark Cuban is pushing back against the direction he sees top AI companies heading. He has called out Perplexity, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and Meta in a recent interview.
Mark Cuban Says AI Companies Are Spending Wrong
Mark’s main criticism is that these companies are throwing massive amounts of money into a race to create the most powerful AI on the planet.
He explained this by saying, “You’ve got five, six, whatever it is, companies that are trying to create the ultimate foundational model that we all depend on. It’s almost like in the ’90s when all the search engines were competing pre-Google… Now, we know with search engines it’s Google, and then there’s Bing, as, like, 1 or 2% and DuckDuckGo has got a half a percent. So it’s effectively a winner-take-all.”
Cuban believes the money being poured in could inflate the market beyond what is realistic. He is apprehensive that these companies might be pushing too hard and too fast.
His point is that excitement can quickly turn into excess, especially when every company wants to be first. If that spend-to-win mindset goes too far, the market could snap quickly and without much warning.
Growing Competition Could Push AI to a Breaking Point
The Mavericks’ owner noted that new tech often reaches a breaking point when competition gets out of control. And the AI bubble might not be an exception.
Another discourse Cuban raised was the fact that AI growth produces huge infrastructure requirements and bills. The enormous data centers that are being built to support large models require heavy investment.
These facilities require huge upfront investment and constant upgrades. He questioned whether spending that much on current tech is wise, given how quickly advancements are happening. It is hard to believe these systems will still make sense ten years from now if better and cheaper options come along.
Mark commented on the matter by saying, “They may be overspending, and if they overspend or get too caught up, the bubble is in the competition between all those models because that could pop just like that with any new technology. I just can’t imagine over a 10-year period that we aren’t going to improve the technology enough that if you overspend on today’s technology, it just doesn’t feel right to me.”
Real Shift in AI Will Be Sudden and Unpredictable
Cuban shared the view that real change in AI won’t arrive through slow upgrades or small tweaks. He thinks the next big leap will be something unexpected and bold. He even joked that if he knew what that breakthrough would be, he would build it himself.
“Somebody’s going to come up with some incredible shit, right? If I knew what it was, I’d do it,” commented Mark.
But in sooth he is not far from the truth. The companies racing today could be taken by surprise when a new idea or player emerges from nowhere and reshapes the entire AI-tech landscape.
Race for Dominance Could Backfire
The rise of AI is very much comparable to the rise of the dot-com era in the late 90s and early 2000s, according to Mark Cuban.
The Shark Tank investor commented on how he sees a pattern in the world developing, which is filled with buzz, big bets, and heavy spending. Major developers seem ready to pour money into this race for many years to come. To him, that level of commitment signals a perfect setup for a challenger to introduce a better approach.
The point, as Mark sees it, is that when companies spend every dollar in one direction, it leaves room for a fresh idea to cut through and change everything.
“They anticipate for at least another decade spending every penny they have. I mean, if that’s not ripe for disruption to come up with better ways, I don’t know what is,” says Mark Cuban.
The AI Race Needs More Thought and Less Panic
Mark Cuban is just reminding the industry to breathe and not operate as if it’s the Cold War arms race all over again. Cuban’s message lands less like a warning and more like a reality check.
The rush to build the biggest model might feel exciting today. But unfortunately, history shows that giants fall fast when someone shows up with a better idea. Spending big does not guarantee success if you are building toward yesterday’s idea of the future.
The future of AI won’t be shaped only by scale or spending power. It will be shaped by whoever is bold enough to think differently.
