PITTSBURGH — Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban on Saturday retracted his assessment of Biden’s controversial Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and suggested Harris’ White House appointment. “I don’t want any repercussions,” he previously told the Post. The FTC chairman shatters trust.
While stumbling over Harris at language learning technology company Duolingo’s headquarters in Pittsburgh, the Shark Tank celebrity said he doesn’t lobby vice presidents about specific staffing choices.
“I’m not trying to get involved in personnel matters at all,” Cuban told the Post, adding that he had not discussed Khan “at all” with the campaign.
“I’m not saying, ‘Hire this person or that person,’ and I have no intention of doing so,” the mogul said.
Mr. Cuban has previously said that if he were Mr. Harris, he would keep Mr. Khan out of any future Democratic administration, adding to calls by major Democratic donors on Wall Street and across Silicon Valley to remove the anti-monopoly crusader. I was in tune.
Specifically, the Cuban president’s anti-Khan comments stemmed from concerns that breaking up big tech companies would thwart America’s dominance in artificial intelligence.
Mark Cuban said he was influenced by Kamala Harris’ policies cracking down on pharmacy benefit managers. zumapress.com
Details aside, Squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reacted violently to Cuba’s comments on X, threatening an “all-out brawl” if donors came after the FTC chairman.
Ms. Harris is caught between progressives and billionaires on both sides of the party and has so far refused to embrace Ms. Khan and her aggressive antitrust policies.
Mr. Khan advocated breaking up Big Tech companies to stimulate innovation, arguing that antitrust lawsuits against IBM and other “national champions” ultimately gave rise to the Internet and generative AI.
Under her leadership, the FTC sued Amazon for favoring its products in its marketplace, and Mehta for acquiring social media competitors Instagram and WhatsApp.
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan wants to protect innovation from Big Tech monopolies. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Federal authorities are also investigating Google, Microsoft and Amazon’s multibillion-dollar AI deals in an effort to thwart monopolies before they stifle competition in innovative emerging technology fields.
“My concern was not whether she would impose sanctions or judgments on the big AI companies, but whether she would dismantle them,” Cuban told the Post, adding that He called it “zero-sum competition.”
“It’s about whether we’re the best in the world,” he said. “If you look at basic AI companies, they have to spend tens of billions of dollars. At least from a cost-performance standpoint, with current technology, it’s not like a startup that suddenly comes in and spends $10 billion. does not exist.”
Although Mr. Cuban disagrees with Mr. Khan on dismantling Big Tech, he praised the efforts of Mr. Biden’s appointees to sue pharmacy benefit managers for artificially inflating drug costs.
“Her work with click-to-cancel, fraud companies, pharmacy benefit managers and more was phenomenal,” Cuban said. The company’s online pharmacy business allows consumers to purchase medicines at lower prices without using traditional pharmacies or insurance benefits.
Cuban said he and Khan influenced Harris’ policies to increase transparency in the pharmaceutical industry and crack down on middlemen who “set prices in outrageous ways that affect people’s health.” said.
Still, the billionaire stressed that he has “no intention of influencing policy” if Harris becomes president.
Reid Hoffman, a fellow tech titan and major Democratic donor, is singing the same tune as prominent Harris supporters in the business world, noting that Harris has not met with influential people and that Harris claims it has no intention of influencing a potential government. Mr. Hoffman, a venture capitalist who co-founded LinkedIn and serves on the board of directors of Microsoft, has been a major critic of Mr. Khan, and Mr. Khan’s committee said that Microsoft and the AI start-up company Mr. Hoffman founded are worth 650 million yen. The company is investigating whether it evaded antitrust scrutiny of its dollar transactions.
Kamala Harris has not appeared with Lina Khan, nor is she campaigning for the FTC chairman’s aggressive antitrust policies. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Mr. Cuban also said on Saturday that he did not want a job in the administration, but told CNBC in September that he spoke frequently with Mr. Harris’ team and that he was a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, where the current head is responsible for cracking down on cryptocurrencies. He said he asked him to consider assuming the top position of the association. .
Some attendees at the town hall worried that Cuban’s hands-off approach to Big Tech could influence Harris.
“Once you have power, you don’t want to give it up,” said Michael Yom, a healthcare worker in Pittsburgh, who advocated for a “healthy tension” between Google and AI startups. .
“He’s going to have to tone it down a little bit. He’s a little more business-oriented and she’s more of a center,” Yom said of the Cuban.
“If they cooperate, he should be more forgiving. I don’t know if he has it in him.”
