亿万富翁投资人马克·库班近日在社交媒体上表示，在这场价值万亿美元的AI竞赛中，拥有核心知识产权（IP）和顶尖人才的公司将占据主导地位。他认为，随着竞争的白热化，科技公司将不择手段地争夺人才和锁定研究成果，以确保自身在AI领域的绝对优势。从Meta提供天价合同挖角顶尖研究人员的事件可以看出，人才战已然打响。库班预测，未来的AI研发将更加注重知识产权的保护和人才的专属，传统的“发表或灭亡”模式将面临挑战，取而代之的是对有价值IP的加密、隔离和有偿使用，AI领域的竞争必将日益激烈且“丑陋”。

💡 **知识产权（IP）是AI竞赛的核心驱动力**：马克·库班强调，在AI领域，知识产权是赢得竞争的关键。随着AI技术的飞速发展和巨额投资的涌入，拥有核心技术和数据优势的公司将占据绝对有利地位。因此，保护和独占有价值的IP成为企业战略的重中之重。

👥 **人才争夺将白热化，IP与人才紧密绑定**：AI行业的竞争不仅体现在技术和资本上，更在于顶尖人才的争夺。企业正通过高额薪酬和优厚待遇吸引和留住关键研究人员，并试图通过锁定这些人才来获取其创造的知识产权。这种人才与IP的绑定，将使得AI领域的“挖角”现象更加普遍和激烈。

📉 **传统研究模式面临挑战，IP保护将转向“加密与隔离”**：库班预测，过去“发表或灭亡”的研究模式将不再适用。随着竞争对手能够迅速复制和利用公开的研究成果，企业将更倾向于将有价值的IP进行加密、隔离，并通过付费墙或独家授权的方式来保护和变现，以防止其被竞争对手轻易获取和整合。

⚔️ **AI领域的竞争将日趋激烈且“丑陋”**：面对巨大的市场潜力和对主导地位的追求，AI公司将不惜一切代价进行竞争。这种竞争可能包括不正当的商业行为，例如恶意挖角、锁定关键技术和人才等，导致整个行业的竞争环境变得复杂且充满挑战，甚至可能出现“丑陋”的局面。

Mark Cuban said hoarding talent and IP will be king, as AI firms hoard talent and lock up research.He warned the $1 trillion AI race will "get ugly" as tech firms fight to dominate.Meta's $100 million offers sparked a talent war, but not all researchers are taking the bait.

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban said the AI arms race will be won by companies that hoard top talent and lock up valuable intellectual property — and that "IP is king" as the competition heats up.

"What people are missing about AI, IMO [in my opinion], is no company is going to spend what will end up being more than a trillion dollars and accept not being dominant," Cuban posted on X on Sunday.

Cuban believes that as the stakes grow, companies will stop at nothing to dominate, including hiring away key people and locking up the intellectual property they produce.

"We are seeing them hire away talent and IP to advance their models," he wrote in a follow-up X post. "They will start paying to lock up IP they think their models need and the people who create it, just to keep it away from their competitors."

Cuban's comments come as the AI talent wars reach fever pitch.

Meta has reportedly offered signing bonuses of up to $100 million, part of a $15 billion deal to recruit Scale AI's CEO, Alexandr Wang, and other top researchers.

On his brother's podcast, "Uncapped with Jack Altman," last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Meta had tried to poach his best employees with nine-figure packages but had failed so far.

Meta has since pushed back, with CTO Andrew Bosworth saying on CNBC's "Closing Bell: Overtime" last month that Altman "neglected to mention that he's countering those offers."

But not everyone is biting. "People here are so mission-oriented," said Anthropic cofounder Benjamin Mann, who said his team turned down Meta's "mega offers."

Mann told "Lenny's Podcast" on Sunday that "at Anthropic, we affect the future of humanity," whereas "my best case scenario at Meta is that we make money."

Still, Cuban believes those kinds of altruistic motivations will become harder to hold onto in a landscape defined by corporate hoarding.

"We are seeing them hire away talent and IP to advance their models," he wrote in a follow-up X post. "They will start paying to lock up IP they think their models need and the people who create it just to keep it away from their competitors."

Cuban sees this changing the culture of research itself.

"The days of publish or perish are probably over. It's now publish, and its value perishes, because it got eaten up by every foundational model," he warned.

His advice: "Encrypt and silo" valuable IP, and sell it to the highest bidder — or keep it behind a paywall.

"IP is KING in an AI world," Cuban wrote. "The times they are a changing."

As for the broader battle brewing in the industry, he added: "They will find a way to battle. I don't know how, other than to guess it will get ugly."

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas echoed Cuban's prediction in an episode of the "Decoder" podcast last Thursday, likening the industry's hiring frenzy to the high-stakes world of professional sports.

"It's definitely going to feel like a transfer market now, like an NBA or something," he said. "There's going to be a few individual stars who are having so much leverage."