Shaquille O'Neal became an NBA legend during a hall-of-fame career that included four world championships and a partnership with Kobe Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers. However, he is also well-known for the value of the investment portfolio he started by purchasing a pre-IPO stake in Google. Now Shaquille is a big proponent of another tech stock. Keep reading to discover why "Big Shaq" is a big backer of an emerging AI company.

You may not have heard of Zeta Global, but you may already be familiar with its work. Zeta Global is a marketing company founded in 2007. It uses a data-driven and heavily analytics-based approach to help companies target clients, grow client relationships and maximize the profitability of client interactions. As is the case with many data-driven businesses, Zeta Global recognizes AI's potential to enhance its operations.

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Zeta Global's insights and services are vital to several business and revenue growth aspects. These services are particularly useful to emerging brands, publishers and marketing agencies. All three endeavors require businesses to commit tremendous amounts of capital to elevate their visibility and retain customer relationships. Zeta Global's AI tools help these companies make better decisions about strategically allocating that capital to achieve the highest possible ROI.

Their approach seems to be working. According to a December press release on Zeta Global's website, usage of their marketing platform increased by 108% over the previous year for the critical holiday shopping season. CEO David Steinberg said, "The Zeta Marketing Platform continues to empower brands to engage high-intent shoppers where they want to be reached, delivering exceptional efficiency and more effective outcomes during the most critical shopping days of the year."

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So, where does Shaquille O'Neal come into the picture? Shaquille's fame as a basketball player, pitchman and investor makes him a popular choice for speaking engagements of all kinds, including last September's Zeta Global annual meeting. According to the Essential Sports website, which was one of many media outlets covering the event, Shaq was joined by fellow sports legend Simone Biles and philosopher Deepak Chopra.

Shaq's live session at the event was called "AI-Powered Slam Dunk: The Business of Shaq." During his live session, O'Neal talked to the audience about how he successfully transitioned from a superstar athlete to a big-time investor with an estimated $500 million portfolio. Zeta Global's CEO also joined Shaquille for this session, but the most amazing aspect was the extent to which O'Neal has warmed up to AI.

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It's a little-known fact, but according to the Essential Sports website (which also covered the event), Shaquille O'Neal has four degrees, including his diploma from Louisiana State University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He's proud of these accomplishments because they required hard work. His current educational pursuit, a master’s in sports psychology, has forced Shaquille to expand his vocabulary.

During a March 2024 podcast, Shaquille discussed the challenge of learning new words and expanding his vocabulary. When the host asked why he didn't use a thesaurus, O'Neal thought he was talking about ChatGPT and replied, "I don't want to cheat. I know where you're going; I don't want to use chat GPT." That speaks volumes about his work ethic, but he's on board with AI now (at least where Zeta Global is concerned).

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