Mark Cuban says he 'just recently' bought Twitter - and the stock is popping

Mark Cuban, the investor and TV personality, told CNBC that he recently invested in Twitter because of its possible artificial intelligence capabilities.

"I started buying Twitter just recently because I think they finally got their act together with artificial intelligence," Cuban told CNBC's Squawk Alley.

The number of companies touting their AI capabilities has increase exponentially as of late, and investors have begun to pour capital into firms that have potential in the space.

Twitter has recent talked about its machine learning functions, and it appears to have caught Cuban's eye.

Twitter bought machine learning start-up Magic Pony in June 2016 and CEO Jack Dorsey told analysts in February that he is "excited about really making sure that we apply artificial intelligence and machine learning."

Following Cuban's statements, shares of Twitter popped by roughly 5% as of 1:15 p.m. ET to $18.42.

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