Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky plans to back a new AI lab

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky plans to back a new AI lab, according to a report by Bloomberg that was confirmed to TechCrunch by a person familiar with the situation. The move marks Chesky’s entry into the artificial intelligence sector as an independent backer. However, Chesky will remain in his current role as the chief executive of Airbnb and does not plan to lead the new lab himself. Because he is maintaining his executive duties at Airbnb, Chesky will not enter “founder mode”—which is a specific management style—for this new venture, leaving the day-to-day leadership of the lab to another executive.

The launch of the lab places Chesky in competition with OpenAI, the company led by his former mentee Sam Altman. The relationship between the two executives dates back to 2006, when they met through the startup accelerator Y Combinator, which incubated Airbnb. As OpenAI grew, Chesky regularly met with Altman to offer advice on managing a rapidly growing technology company. Chesky was reportedly considered as a potential OpenAI board member and later helped broker Altman’s return to power after OpenAI’s board of directors fired the CEO for a “lack of candor”. During that period, Chesky advised Altman on public relations and rallied support for him among other Silicon Valley figures.

While the specific focus of Chesky’s new AI lab remains unclear, the venture is expected to emphasize user interaction and design, areas that Chesky has historically prioritized at Airbnb. This direction is similar to the approach taken by Brett Adcock at Hark, an AI lab startup that launched late last year to develop a new user interface for an AI assistant, though Adcock’s startup also emphasizes hardware products. Chesky’s decision to back a new lab follows his previous comments on the state of artificial intelligence. Last year, Airbnb adopted AI coding tools, but Chesky noted that the company had not established a partnership with a large language model provider because existing products were not ready. His new venture positions him among several Silicon Valley leaders who are unsatisfied with the models currently produced by frontier labs—which are leading organizations developing advanced AI models.

Why it matters

Chesky’s move highlights a growing trend of Silicon Valley leaders dissatisfied with current frontier AI models, signaling his entry into direct competition with his former mentee, Sam Altman.