Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has suggested that the world’s first trillionaire could be a single individual using artificial intelligence (AI) in a groundbreaking way.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Cuban said AI is still in its “preseason” and compared its potential impact to the early days of personal computers and smartphones. He believes the next major breakthrough may come from an unknown person working alone, calling it “just one dude in the basement” who develops a global product using AI.
Cuban, known for his role on Shark Tank and as owner of the Dallas Mavericks, highlighted how AI is already transforming industries. He cited Chipotle’s CEO Scott Boatwright, who said AI has reduced the company’s hiring time by 75%. Cuban also uses AI to manage his health, daily tasks, and creative content for his basketball team.
Despite AI’s promise, Cuban warned that the technology is not perfect. He noted that systems like ChatGPT or Google Gemini can produce incorrect or misleading results, also known as “hallucinations.” He urged users to critically assess AI outputs and not rely on them blindly.
Addressing concerns that AI may eliminate jobs, Cuban argued the opposite — saying AI is a tool for creative and innovative individuals to improve productivity and explore new opportunities. He pointed to tech history, such as Apple beginning in Steve Jobs’ garage and OpenAI’s early work from a living room, as examples of how big ideas often start small.
Other tech leaders, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have echoed Cuban’s views, suggesting that AI could allow individuals to build highly scalable ventures, possibly even reaching trillion-dollar valuations.
Although a 2024 Oxfam report predicted established billionaires like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos might hit the trillionaire mark by 2027, Cuban’s vision centers on a lesser-known entrepreneur using AI to reach that milestone.
