Mark Cuban Encourages Graduates to Consider Small Businesses Amid AI Changes
American billionaire Mark Cuban has shared advice for recent college graduates, urging them to explore job opportunities with small businesses instead of solely focusing on large corporations. His message comes at a time when artificial intelligence (AI) is significantly affecting the job market.
In a post on social media platform X, Cuban pointed out that small businesses generate about 60% of new jobs each year. He believes that AI will make it easier for these smaller companies to compete with larger ones, encouraging new graduates to kickstart their careers in these environments. He wrote, “1. Small businesses create around 60% of new jobs every year. 2. AI helps them compete better with big companies. 3. The amount of jobs created by small businesses will continue to rise. 4. Start your job search with small businesses.”
Growth in Employment from Small Companies
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics highlights that from the third quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2025, companies with less than 250 employees accounted for 51% of net job creation. Cuban emphasized that this trend will likely grow as AI enables small companies to enhance their capabilities without incurring high costs.
Big Companies Adjusting to AI
Cuban’s comments come as large corporations are revising their hiring strategies due to the impacts of AI. For example, the fintech company Block, led by Jack Dorsey, laid off 40% of its workforce earlier this year, citing improvements in efficiency due to AI. Research from Goldman Sachs predicts that 300 million jobs worldwide could be affected by AI automation, with a significant portion of work hours in the U.S. potentially being managed by AI systems.
On the flip side, the World Economic Forum forecasts that AI will create about 78 million new roles, including jobs like AI integration specialists and ethics managers.
Concerns About OpenAI
Recently, Mark Cuban raised concerns about the financial health of OpenAI, particularly following the company’s massive fundraising efforts. Speaking on the Big Technology podcast, he suggested that if OpenAI’s financial plans do not pay off, they might be in serious trouble. He expressed doubt about whether the investments in AI infrastructure would yield the expected returns, saying, “They’re just wasting that money… The numbers being projected may not materialize.”
OpenAI, which is overseen by Sam Altman, reportedly raised $122 billion in March at a valuation of $852 billion, marking one of the largest funding rounds in the technology sector’s history. Cuban also noted the uncertainty about whether the industry for large language models will lead to a few dominant players or become saturated, emphasizing that smaller AI companies in specialized fields may find it challenging to maintain strong positions since their data can be accessed and used by multiple competitors.
