According to Mark Cuban, the sight of Big Tech CEOs supporting Donald Trump is more about surviving in the most costly technological race in the world than it is about politics.
The billionaire investor and former Shark Tank star claimed in an interview with “The Tennessee Holler” podcast on Thursday that executives like Elon Musk, Michael Dell, and Mark Zuckerberg are working in the shadow of an AI arms race that sets Silicon Valley behemoths against one another and US businesses against China.
You have to put yourself in their shoes. AI is a battle to win. Cuban said, “We are at war with the rest of the world, especially China.”
Then there is OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini vs. Meta. You have Grok at xAI, perplexity. Whether that will be a zero-sum game is unknown to us.
Even though the action drew criticism, he contended that this explains why some of the wealthiest tech leaders in the world were eager to become close to Trump.
Therefore, why did all of these men—Elon Musk, Michael Dell, Zuckerberg, and others—get down on their knees and why did they get knee pads that were particularly adorned with gold when they visited the White House? Cuban inquired.
He said that although Trump would only hold office for a few years, the supremacy of AI might shape whole generations. The math is straightforward.
If you’re Mark Zuckerberg, spending $50 billion annually and practically borrowing money, and you feel that you must bow down to Donald Trump, guess what? He’s 41 years old, he said of Meta’s CEO.
If all goes according to plan, Donald Trump will be gone in less than four years, but artificial intelligence will continue to evolve.
The tech courtship of Trump—and shifting allegiance
The courtship is now open.
A who’s-who of tech titans hailed Trump at a White House Rose Garden dinner earlier this month following an AI conference.
According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Trump is “a pro-business, pro-innovation president,” who would “set us up for a long period of leading the world.”
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, used the occasion to showcase a $1 billion US education initiative, which includes $150 million in AI-focused funding.
After thanking Trump “for setting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said he likes “working with the administration.”
Sitting close to the president, Zuckerberg thanked him for hosting and stated that businesses are investing heavily in US data centers to fuel “the next wave of innovation.”
Not everybody was present. After a highly public backlash, Elon Musk, who was previously the public face of the White House’s DOGE office, did not attend the event, but the White House claimed a representative did.
Even still, the night demonstrated how drastically some relationships have changed: Trump once threatened to imprison Zuckerberg, but the Meta CEO has met with him many times this year. Cook has combined kind words with grand promises of US investment.
