Billionaire investor Mark Cuban predicted on Aug. 16 that high-end computing chips will become the next crypto-like asset class, stating that “chips as an asset class will be the new crypto.” The one-line post did not specify a financial product, investment structure, or timetable, leaving the claim as a broad investment thesis rather than a defined market category.
The idea already has precedents in institutional financing. CoreWeave closed a $2.6 billion delayed draw term loan facility on Aug. 10 to fund high-performance computing infrastructure. The roughly five-year facility was oversubscribed and exceeded the average three-year duration of supporting customer contracts, with lenders accepting renewal risk based on expectations for future Nvidia GPU values. In May, CoreWeave completed another $3.1 billion publicly syndicated facility and described AI infrastructure financing as an emerging asset class.
Nvidia’s latest reported data underscores strong GPU demand: data center revenue reached $75.2 billion for the quarter ended April 26, up 92% year over year, while total quarterly revenue hit a record $81.6 billion. However, GPUs remain physical assets exposed to technological obsolescence and infrastructure requirements, and their supply lacks Bitcoin’s fixed issuance mechanics. Bitcoin advocate Pierre Rochard rejected Cuban’s analogy, writing that chip manufacturing has neither difficulty adjustments nor halvings and is therefore “not the new bitcoin.”
Cuban’s prediction follows his recent retreat from Bitcoin. Less than three months earlier, he sold roughly 80% of his Bitcoin holdings, saying Bitcoin was “not the hedge I expected” and had “lost the plot.” He said he continued to hold Ethereum because smart contracts and decentralized finance have clearer utility.
