Airbnb chief plans to start a company focused on AI - Bloomberg

Brian Chesky, CEO of the Airbnb accommodation booking service, is creating a new artificial intelligence lab to develop his own AI models, Bloomberg writes, citing sources. The project is at an early stage, and one of its key areas may be the creation of new forms of interaction between users and digital services, the agency says.

Chesky will remain head of Airbnb, several Bloomberg sources said. At the same time, he will not be the CEO of the new structure, one of the sources said. Representatives of the head of Airbnb and the company itself declined to comment.

The creation of the lab will be Chesky's first independent step into AI at a time of increasing competition between technology companies, Bloomberg writes. Airbnb has not partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its services, unlike a number of competitors in the travel industry. The startup's AI tools are not strong enough: travel and e-commerce apps require rich user interfaces, not text-based chatbots, the Airbnb CEO said.

In parallel, Chesky continues to transform Airbnb into a universal travel platform by developing additional services that could eventually generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue for the company, the agency concludes.

Airbnb shares rose a paltry 0.1% in trading on June 4. Since the beginning of 2026, they have fallen in price by 1.47%. For comparison, the "technological" index Nasdaq Composite has risen by 15.4% over the same period. Most analysts, however, advise to buy shares of the service: the securities have a total of 25 Buy and Overweight ratings, MarketWatch shows. But 19 analysts recommend to hold (Hold), two - to sell (Sell).

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