American billionaire and former Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban has taken aim at ChatGPT-maker OpenAI's business strategy, warning CEO Sam Altman that the company is 'throwing away money at scale.' According to a report by Benzinga, speaking on the Big Technology Podcast, Cuban expressed skepticism about the sustainability of OpenAI's massive spending on data centers and infrastructure.
Cuban Questions OpenAI's Spending on Infrastructure
Cuban argued that computing power is advancing so quickly and becoming faster and cheaper that today's eye-catching investment projections are unlikely to materialize. 'The numbers thrown out there aren't going to come to fruition. It's not going to happen,' he said. He compared OpenAI's approach to Apple, noting that Apple spent 'next to nothing' yet built a foundation where developers could simply 'plug and play' into its devices.
OpenAI's Revenue and User Targets Missed
OpenAI, valued at $852 billion and reportedly preparing for a public listing, has failed to meet its revenue and new-user targets. The company missed its goal of one billion weekly ChatGPT users and annual revenue expectations, largely due to competition from Google's Gemini. Cuban has also questioned whether large AI models like ChatGPT or Gemini will ever be profitable, suggesting the industry could mirror streaming with a few winners and many struggling or consolidate into one dominant player.
Internal Tensions at OpenAI
Reports also suggest that OpenAI executives are prioritizing cost control and discipline, sometimes clashing with Altman's vision. CFO Sarah Friar has raised concerns about whether the company can afford future computing contracts if revenue growth stalls. High subscriber churn has added to the pressure, raising doubts about whether OpenAI can sustain its heavy infrastructure spending.
Mark Cuban's Advice on AI for His Daughter
During his appearance on the Big Technology Podcast, Cuban shared a 'critical' piece of advice he once gave to his daughter. He said that if he was graduating right now, 'or if I was a 16-year-old looking for a job, I would learn everything there is to know about AI.' Answering the question 'Who succeeds with AI,' Cuban replied, 'Whoever learns how to use the (AI) tools the best.'
'It's like I was telling my daughter, if you learn how to use these tools, and you know how to think critically, you're curious, so you're always learning, you're always going to have a job because AI doesn't know the consequences of its action,' he said. He further stated that one must not be in a business where 'you just trust the AI and it's like,' adding 'Oh what did it do.' 'You need somebody as the buffer to understand how, where, when, and why to or why not to use it. And that's critical. And that's middle management in a lot of cases,' he stated.
