Tech billionaire and entrepreneur Mark Cuban believes artificial intelligence has the potential to create the world’s first trillionaire — and it might not be a corporate juggernaut that achieves it, but “just one dude in a basement.”
Speaking on a recent episode of the High Performance podcast, the 66-year-old investor said the AI revolution is still in its earliest stage, comparing its current adoption curve to the beginnings of the personal computer and smartphone eras.
“It’s just the very beginning, right? You know, we’re still in the preseason,” Cuban said.
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But the potential is unlike anything the world has seen, he argued. “Not only do I think it’ll create a trillionaire, but it could be just one dude in the basement. That’s how crazy it could be.”
AI’s Economic Trajectory
Cuban’s prediction comes amid explosive growth in the artificial intelligence sector. According to estimates by PwC, AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, making it one of the most transformative technologies of the 21st century. The consulting firm projects that $6.6 trillion will come from increased productivity, while $9.1 trillion will result from consumption-side effects such as higher demand for personalized and AI-enhanced products.
Meanwhile, market research firm Statista forecasts that the AI industry — covering software, hardware, and services — will reach a market size of over $1 trillion by 2031, up from about $241 billion in 2023. That growth is driven by surging adoption across healthcare, finance, transportation, media, manufacturing, and enterprise services.
Cuban believes that anyone who can harness AI to build a universally needed solution — like the role smartphones now play — could ride the wave to unprecedented personal wealth.
Someone who can come up with a way that makes AI as essential “will make a lot of money,” Cuban added.
Cuban emphasized that people tend to resist new technology in its early days, a pattern seen with PCs, smartphones, and now AI.
“Most people condemn things when they first happen,” he said. “But then, when you see people using it and you realize the value, that’s when people come around.”
The veteran investor said he’s already using AI extensively in both his business and personal life. For work, he turns to AI for tasks like software development and text-to-video generation. At home, he’s employed ChatGPT to help track his medications and exercise habits.
“I’m not here to tell you it’s going to replace everyone’s job — it won’t,” he said, but the technology is incredible, whether you’re innovative or just feeling bored.
A New Kind of Billionaire — or Trillionaire
Cuban’s trillionaire forecast underlines just how vast the AI stakes are. The world’s richest individual, Elon Musk, currently has a net worth of approximately $360 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. At his peak in December 2024, Musk’s net worth hit $439 billion, buoyed by a rally in Tesla stock. Yet even that historic figure falls far short of the $1 trillion mark.
Breaking that threshold would likely require a blend of perfect timing, massive market reach, and disruptive innovation — all of which Cuban says AI makes possible for even a single individual with the right idea and access to the right tools.
For those who think the era of building empires from garages and basements is over, Cuban’s message is that with AI, it might just be beginning again — on a trillion-dollar scale.
