Billionaire Mark Cuban Says Data Center Fight Is ‘Proxy For Hate’ Toward AI And ‘Concentration Of Wealth’ — ‘Nothing To Do With Data Centers’

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be built on chips and code, but Mark Cuban believes its future could hinge on something much less technical: whether ordinary people decide they want it in their backyard.

In a post on X on June 25, the billionaire entrepreneur argued that growing opposition to data centers is no longer just about giant buildings or power demand. Instead, he said, they have become symbols of broader anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence.

“It’s time for everyone to realize that the fight against data centers has nothing to do with data centers,” Cuban wrote. “They have become a proxy for the hate towards AI and the concentration and accumulation of wealth it’s creating.”

Silicon Valley Has a People Problem

Cuban argued that the companies behind today’s largest large language models, or LLMs, are losing public support because they have focused too much on technology and not enough on the people affected by it.

“The big LLMs have lost the PR battle,” he wrote. “Why? Because they all suck at putting people first. They have an SV attitude that makes them all think they are John Galt saving the world.”

His prescription was simple — stop selling AI and start listening.

Cuban urged executives to visit communities where new data centers are planned — not to convince residents that AI is beneficial, but to ask what they need.

“Until those running the big LLMs understand this and start a community tour, not to explain the benefits of AI, it’s too late for that, but to help towns and cities that may be impacted by job losses… this battle is only going to get more intense,” he wrote. “No matter how much money you pay to buy politicians and races, you will lose.”

He added, “One thing I have learned is being hated is not good for business.”

The Pushback Arrived Quickly

Not everyone accepted Cuban’s premise.

One widely shared reply argued that residents are not protesting data centers because they dislike artificial intelligence or resent wealthy technology companies. Instead, the user pointed to constant noise, light pollution, and declining property values, writing that nearby homeowners are “tortured” by facilities operating around the clock.

Cuban replied with a question of his own.

“Where was this fight against the CHIPS Act?” he wrote, referring to the federal law designed to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.

Other commenters pointed to concerns over electricity demand, water consumption, and the relatively small number of permanent jobs many data centers create after construction is complete. Several users cited Northern Virginia, home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of data centers, as an example of communities wrestling with those tradeoffs.

Artists, Not Celebrities

Cuban also addressed concerns from creative professionals, arguing that AI companies should work directly with artists instead of hiring celebrities to defend the technology.

“Don’t try to pay famous people to endorse what you are doing. That’s dumb,” he wrote.

Instead, he encouraged executives to meet with arts and creative unions in Los Angeles and New York City and ask what kinds of programs would help protect artists’ livelihoods.

“Talk to artists and ask them what you can do to provide financial and creative support,” Cuban wrote. “Every creative I know is TERRIFIED about what AI will do to their profession.”

One user challenged Cuban by resurfacing one of his earlier posts encouraging creators to embrace AI.

Cuban responded that his position had not changed.

“I still think it will be a net positive for creators,” he wrote. “AI can’t tell stories. Can’t be creative. AI can’t determine what people want. Only people can.”

More Than a Technology Debate

Demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to grow as companies build larger and more powerful AI models. That expansion has placed data centers at the center of debates over energy, land use, local development, and economic opportunity.

Cuban’s argument is that those debates cannot be won with engineering alone.

His advice to AI companies was ultimately less about servers than relationships: Ask communities what they need, support the people who believe their jobs are at risk, and remember that public trust can become just as important as technological progress.

“Given the number of data centers and power that is needed, today and going forward,” Cuban wrote, “if you don’t kiss the as*es of the people that go to work every day, and are just trying to pay their bills, you will fall far far short of the capacity you need to make your business work.”