Mark Cuban: “A lot of data centers will be turned into pickleball courts.”

In this short clip from the All-In Podcast, Mark Cuban forecasts that parts of the current AI data-centre construction boom could become redundant if rapid technology improvements reduce the compute and power required to run advanced AI systems. He describes a financing dynamic in which market leaders such as Google and Meta are, in his telling, borrowing “hundreds of billions of dollars” while simultaneously allocating most of their cash flow to capital expenditure, layering debt on top of already heavy spending.

Cuban frames this as “planning for perfection” and warns that a private credit problem already exists, implying additional borrowing could heighten fragility if expected utilisation or returns fail to materialise. He argues that while demand for AI services may rise, it could be offset by efficiency breakthroughs that compress costs and infrastructure needs.

To illustrate the risk, he draws an analogy to the fibre-optic build-out of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when successive performance improvements and overbuilding led to surplus capacity and “dark fibre” being sold for “pennies on the dollar”. His bottom line: similar price-performance gains in AI could leave today’s newly built data centres underused or economically stranded.

• Mark Cuban predicts some newly built AI data centres could become redundant if efficiency breakthroughs reduce power/compute needs.
• He says big tech leaders including Google and Meta are borrowing heavily while spending cash flow on capex.
• Cuban characterises the financing strategy as ‘planning for perfection’.
• He claims there is already a ‘private credit problem’ and warns additional leverage could amplify risk.
• He compares the AI infrastructure boom to the fibre-optic era that produced large amounts of ‘dark fibre’.
• Cuban argues utilisation may grow, but not necessarily enough to match the scale of current build-outs if technology improves quickly.