{"slug": "why-mark-cuban-says-many-ai-data-centers-could-wind-up-as-pickleball-courts", "title": "Why Mark Cuban says many AI data centers could wind up as 'pickleball courts'", "summary": "Mark Cuban joked on the 'All-In' podcast that many AI data centers could become pickleball courts if technological breakthroughs make AI cheaper and more power-efficient, rendering current computing capacity redundant. The tech billionaire warned that Big Tech companies like Meta and Alphabet are pouring hundreds of billions into AI infrastructure, borrowing heavily and planning for perfection, which he called 'hard' and risky for VCs and funds.", "body_md": "[Mark Cuban](https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-net-worth-2018-9) joked that the AI buildout could result in pickleball fans having plenty more venues to choose from.\n\nThe tech billionaire said during the latest episode of the \"All-In\" podcast that if AI models and [data centers](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-data-center-cost-2025-6) become more efficient over time, much of the computing capacity being built today will become redundant.\n\nThe former \"Shark Tank\" investor said that so-called hyperscalers like Meta and Alphabet, which are [collectively pouring hundreds of billions of dollars](https://www.businessinsider.com/big-tech-ai-capex-infrastructure-data-center-wars-2025-10) into building data centers, are correctly anticipating that AI usage will rise over time.\n\nBut he predicted that \"technological breakthroughs\" will make AI [cheaper and more power-efficient](https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-chair-predicts-companies-stop-worrying-ai-tokens-price-2026-7). He pointed to how there was a similar rush to build fiber networks, but eventually connection speeds accelerated, and there \"wasn't a bandwidth problem anymore.\"\n\nCuban said he couldn't see how we \"don't get the same price-performance improvements on the AI side and on the data center side.\"\n\nIf he's right, there will be \"a lot of data centers that are going to be turned into pickleball courts,\" he quipped. Cuban is the co-owner of the Dallas Flash pickleball team.\n\nThe Broadcast.com founder, who[ sold his internet-radio startup](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/how-mark-cuban-saved-billions-yahoo-windfall-dot-com-crash-2020-6-1029303375) to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in April 1999, sounded the alarm on Big Tech companies plowing cash into AI infrastructure, borrowing heavily to fund those outlays, and pledging to keep spending for years to come.\n\n\"That's planning for perfection, and that's going to be hard,\" Cuban said, adding that \"nobody can predict that well.\"\n\nCuban said the AI boom isn't as [extreme or wide-reaching](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-bubble-how-it-compares-to-dot-com-2000-crash-2026-6) as the internet bubble, limiting its blast radius if it does blow up.\n\n\"It's not the traditional dot-com bubble, right?\" Cuban said. He pointed to fewer companies going public today at \"crazy valuations\" and seeing their stock prices double despite having \"no revenue, no traffic, no nothing\" — and fewer cab drivers chatting about their favorite internet startups to every passenger who will listen. Cuban said that \"you don't see that at all today.\"\n\n\"So, it's not a bubble that's going to impact most people in the room, or most people across the US, but it could just [destroy](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-bubble-microsoft-stock-market-crash-erik-gordon-tech-investing-2026-1) a lot of VCs and a lot of funds and a lot of PE, right?\" he continued. \"Because they're going all in.\"\n\nCuban is the latest big name to warn that AI fever could have painful consequences.\n\nMichael Burry of \"The Big Short\" fame has [warned](https://www.businessinsider.com/big-short-michael-burry-substack-ai-bubble-stock-picks-bitcoin-2025-12) that Big Tech companies are overinvesting in microchips and data centers that will quickly become obsolete.\n\nGMO cofounder Jeremy Grantham has said AI is \"[obviously a bubble](https://www.businessinsider.com/jeremy-grantham-ai-bubble-nvidia-tech-stocks-stock-market-crash-2026-1),\" and compared it to the railroad and internet bubbles as transformational ideas that sparked huge capital outlays and rampant speculation.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-mark-cuban-says-many-ai-data-centers-could-wind-up-as-pickleball-courts", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-ai-buildout-data-centers-infrastructure-pickleball-dotcom-bubble-2026-7", "published_at": "2026-07-22 13:00:24+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-22 13:24:16.887357+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Mark Cuban", "Meta", "Alphabet", "Yahoo", "Dallas Flash", "Michael Burry", "Jeremy Grantham", "GMO"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-mark-cuban-says-many-ai-data-centers-could-wind-up-as-pickleball-courts", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-mark-cuban-says-many-ai-data-centers-could-wind-up-as-pickleball-courts.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-mark-cuban-says-many-ai-data-centers-could-wind-up-as-pickleball-courts.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-mark-cuban-says-many-ai-data-centers-could-wind-up-as-pickleball-courts.jsonld"}}