Mark Cuban thinks the spectacle of Big Tech CEOs embracing Donald Trump has less to do with politics than with survival in the world’s most expensive technology race.
In an interview with “The Tennessee Holler” podcast on Thursday, the billionaire investor and former Shark Tank star said leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Michael Dell are operating under the shadow of an AI arms race — one that pits US companies against China and Silicon Valley giants against each other.
“You have to put yourself in their shoes. There is a war to win AI. There’s one war between us and the rest of the world, particularly China,” Cuban said.
“And then there is Gemini at Google versus Meta, ChatGPT at OpenAI. You’ve got Grok at xAI, Perplexity. We don’t know if that’s going to be a zero-sum game.”
He argued that this explains why some of the world’s richest tech executives were willing to get close to Trump, even when the move sparked criticism.
“So why did all these guys — Zuckerberg, Elon, Michael Dell, etc. get on their knees, and why did they get especially gold-crusted knee pads when they went to the White House?” Cuban asked.
The calculus, he said, is simple: Trump may only be in office for a few years, but AI dominance could define entire generations.
“So if you’re them, Mark Zuckerberg, and you’re spending $50 billion a year and you’re literally borrowing money, if it means you need to bend the knee to Donald Trump, guess what? He’s 41 years old,” he said of Meta’s CEO.
“Donald Trump, hopefully, is only going to be here less than four years, and he’s gone, but AI is going to keep on going.”
The tech courtship of Trump — and shifting loyalties
The courtship is now in the open.
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At a White House Rose Garden dinner following an AI event earlier this month, a who’s-who of tech leaders praised Trump.
Brian Snyder/REUTERS
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman described Trump as “a pro-business, pro-innovation president,” who will “set us up for a long period of leading the world.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai used the occasion to tout a $1 billion US education push, including $150 million for AI-focused grants.
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook thanked Trump “for setting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States,” adding that he enjoys “working with the administration.”
Zuckerberg, seated next to the president, thanked him for hosting and said companies are pouring capital into US data centers to power “the next wave of innovation.”
Not everyone showed. Elon Musk — once the public face of the White House’s DOGE office — skipped the dinner after a very public fallout, though the White House said a representative attended.
Even so, the evening underscored how far some relationships have shifted: Trump once threatened to jail Zuckerberg; now the Meta CEO has met with him multiple times this year. Cook has paired warm words with splashy US investment pledges.