Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban hopped on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to discuss a variety of topics like his phone conversations with former President Donald Trump, the rise of artificial intelligence and his health care startup, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs.
Cuban has shifted his focus since selling a majority stake of the Dallas Mavericks to the leadership of casino operator Las Vegas Sands. He’s now on a mission to shake up health care and is ready to take the industry with him.
Here are some highlights from his conversation with Daily Show host Jon Stewart.
Cost Plus Drugs
On his Monday television appearance, Cuban said if hospitals want to work with him, they’ll have to be public about it.
Cuban said he’s received the green light to publish the contracts of companies such as hospitals that work with Cost Plus Drugs.
“We’re just getting it approved today. We’re going to publish all contracts,” Cuban said. “Never before has it be done where, for my companies, we’re saying if you want to do business with us, if this hospital system wants to work with my companies, we’re going to publish them and put them online for anybody to see all of our pricing.”
Cuban started Cost Plus Drugs in 2022 with a simple pitch. The company sells medications at a 15% markup along with a $3 pharmacy fee and a $5 shipping cost, which Cuban has promised is significantly cheaper than traditional methods and would have saved the Mavericks $150,000.
Since launching the Dallas-based company, he’s inked deals with hospital systems, launched a wholesale market and began manufacturing drugs out of Deep Ellum.
“Prior to us, there was no transparency whatsoever and so nobody knew what the price of any medication was,” Cuban said. “These pharmacy benefit managers are dictating prices left and right. They’re basically stealing money from employers and employees. So we walked in there and said, ‘What’s the one missing piece?’ [It’s] transparency.”
Though the allure of scooping up more power by potentially running for office or raising prices and making money off Cost Plus Drugs is strong, Cuban is more interested in changing health care for the long term, he said.
“What could be better than f---ng up the health care system in America so it’s affordable?” he said. “I don’t want to be 95 and look and say ‘I was president,’ but I didn’t get to know my kids at all. I’d rather say, ‘I f---ed up health care and everybody’s healthier and got a better world to live in.’ ”
Elon Musk, Donald Trump and politics
Cuban and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk haven’t always seen eye to eye. The two have traded verbal spats at one another on Musk’s social media platform, X, over diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Cuban also recently called out Musk over his leadership at the platform.
“Truth”
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 10, 2024
You do realize that YOU make the decisions on how “Truths” are amplified or suppressed on this platform ?
That YOU create the most CHAOS when it comes to what is factual or not because YOUR posts get the most amplification ? https://t.co/DqEFf6W8p3
To Cuban, Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter in April 2022 has made him one of the most important figures in the world due to how easily accessible the platform is for users.
“Look at Elon, right? He’s trying to be the most influential man in the world,” Cuban said. “Wherever his thumb wants to go, he gets to push as hard or light as he wants.”
Musk has more power globally than he does domestically, Cuban said. It makes his political beliefs more important as the app has become a safer place for conservative figures, according to a Pew Research Center report.
During his Daily Show appearance, Cuban revealed more details into his relationship with Trump. Though he said he was open to supporting him in 2016, Cuban has soured on Trump, specifically due to their phone conversations.
“We were talking about this one debate for CNBC that he wasn’t going to be at. I’m like, ‘Donald, why don’t you go to a local, small business and just show off your business chops and show people you’re a businessman,’ ” Cuban said. “He goes, ‘Donald Trump and Mark Cuban don’t go to people’s houses and have dinner. Are you kidding me?’ That’s who he is.”
Cuban was interested in seeing how Trump was planning to grow a grassroots following when Trump told him he already had a plan.
“When we talked about what’s he going to do with the ground game, [he said], ‘I got all these religious people that are going to do all the work for me,’ ” Cuban said.
The Dallas billionaire has pledged his support for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and warned Trump’s political approach is dangerous for the country, he said.
“He just brought hate and anger to politics and that is his sales pitch,” Cuban said. “Donald is a sales rep and a salesperson. He’s going to follow what works. He’s going to try all different kinds of things and talk to different people and if it works, he’s going to do more of it.”
Technology
Cuban got his start in the world of technology. He sold internet radio company Broadcast.com to Yahoo in September 1995 for $5.7 billion. He remains in the tech world through some of his Shark Tank investments and other endeavors like his cryptocurrency portfolio.
Though Cuban is bullish about artificial intelligence and the United States’ control of the market compared to other countries, he worries that enough bad actors could ruin it for everyone else.
“Everybody’s chasing power and nothing will give you more power than military and AI,” he said. “We just got to go through it. Because if we don’t, the Chinese and the Russians will. The only thing that holds AI back is processing power, electricity and ingenuity, and I think our ingenuity wins. And that’s why we have to open the door for AI.”
For Cuban, bolstering the strength of artificial intelligence through laws like the CHIPS and Science Act will be important to securing America’s position at the top, potentially tapping into younger generations to lead the way.
“I think we’ll learn and we’ll evolve and the same will happen with AI ...,” Cuban said. “But I think Gen Z has a better understanding and feel of AI and where it’s going and will be able to come up with better uses, implementations and regulations.”
