Airbnb acquires AI startup for just under 0 million

Airbnb acquires AI startup for just under $200 million

Published

2 years ago

November 14, 2023

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Airbnb acquires AI startup Gameplanner.AI in a nearly $200 million deal

Airbnb has made its first acquisition as a public company, in a deal valued at just under $200 million, sources familiar with the deal told CNBC.

The startup is called Gameplanner.AI, which has been in “stealth mode” since its founding in 2020. Startups in stealth mode operate out of the public eye for various reasons, such as to protect intellectual property or avoid distractions. Gameplanner.AI will accelerate some of Airbnb’s AI projects, according to Airbnb.

Gameplanner.AI was cofounded by Adam Cheyer, one of the founders of Siri. When Siri was acquired by Apple, he worked alongside Steve Jobs. Cheyer later co-founded Viv Labs, which would become the foundation for Samsung’s voice assistant.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has said that generative AI will radically change the platform and that he wants to use it as a “travel concierge” that learns about users over time and enhances their travel experiences — for example, matching users with the right rooms or homes.

This deal is Airbnb’s first acquisition since 2019 and could pique some interest on Wall Street as to whether Chesky’s M&A strategy is shifting, potentially making Airbnb a more attractive acquisition. The company is profitable on a GAAP basis and held $11 billion in cash and liquid assets as of the end of September.

Airbnb’s news follows reports that Google is in talks to invest hundreds of millions into another AI startup, Character.AI, which in March raised a $150 million at a $1 billion valuation in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The startup lets people create virtual characters or chat with AI versions of celebrities like Elon Musk or Albert Einstein.

Technology

Intel stock holds 10% rise after analyst predicts major Apple deal

Published

38 mins ago

December 1, 2025

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Intel stock holds 10% rise after analyst predicts major Apple deal

Intel stock held a sharp hike in pretrading on Monday, after the stock surged on Friday when an analyst predicted the chip giant was nearing a deal to supply Apple in 2027.

Shares in Intel rose 10% on Friday after TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted on X that he expected Intel to begin shipping its lowest-end M processor to Apple as early as second or third quarter 2027.

He said that his latest industry surveys indicate that “visibility on Intel becoming an advanced-node supplier to Apple has recently improved significantly.”

Intel stock fell 0.59% as of 6.26am ET on Monday in early pretrading.

Kuo added that the timeline of the partnership is contingent on the development process after Intel releases its process design kit — the blueprint from which Apple’s engineers can build the chips — which is expected early 2026.

Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger on Google AI chips: Competition is good for all

Apple’s silicon chips for its iPhone, iPad and Mac products are currently supplied by TSMC.

In his post, Kuo played down the potential Intel-Apple partnership’s impact on the Taiwanese chip maker, saying that Apple is expected to remain “highly dependent” on the company’s advanced nodes for the “foreseeable future.”

“In absolute terms, order volumes for the lowest-end M processor are relatively small and virtually no material impact on TSMC’s fundamentals or its technology leadership over the next several years.”

Kuo added a deal with Intel would signal strong support from Apple for the Trump administration’s push for its homegrown companies to manufacture in the U.S.

Neither Intel nor Apple immediately responded to a request for comment from CNBC.

‘If Intel pulls it off, there is potential to win higher volume and value business from Apple’

Intel’s stock has seen a resurgence over the past 12 months after years of decline. Share price fell as low as $17.66 in April, before recovering over the past few months.

“Apple is a potential major reference customer whose presence validates Intel’s high-performance foundry offering,” Paul Markham, investment director at GAM Global Equities, told CNBC.

“If Intel pulls it off, there is potential to win higher volume and value business from Apple, for example CPU production for the iPhone, and win business from other large chip designers.”

Intel has had an up and down relationship with Apple since it first announced the chip giant’s processors would power some products in 2005. The iPhone maker transitioned away from the company’s processors at the start of the 2020s.

Last week Intel was on the subject of a lawsuit filed by TSMC, in which it alleged one of its former senior vice president had leaked “confidential information” to the company. Intel did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment at the time.

Technology

How black boxes became key to solving airplane crashes

Published

22 hours ago

November 30, 2025

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How black boxes became key to solving airplane crashes

After the search for survivors and recovery of victims in tragic aviation accidents — like that of a UPS cargo plane shortly after takeoff from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky last month — comes the search for flight data and a cockpit voice recorder often called the “black box.”

Every commercial plane has them. Aerospace giants GE Aerospace and Honeywell are among a few companies that design them to be nearly indestructible so they can help investigators understand the cause of a crash.

“They’re very crucial because it’s one of the few sources of information that tells us what happened leading up to the accident,” said Chris Babcock, branch chief of the vehicle recorder division at the National Transportation Safety Board. “We can get a lot of information from parts and from the airplane.”

Commercial aircraft have become very complex. A Boeing 787 Dreamliner records thousands of different pieces of information. In the case of the Air India crash in June, data revealed both engine fuel switches were put into a cutoff position within one second of each other. A voice recording from inside the cockpit captured the pilots discussing the cutoffs.

“All of those parameters today can have a very huge impact on the investigation,” said former NTSB member John Goglia. “It’s our goal to to provide information back to our investigators who are on scene as quick as we can to help move the investigation forward.”

This crucial data can also help prevent future accidents. A crash can cost airlines or plane manufacturers hundreds of millions of dollars and leave victims’ families with a lifetime of grief.

But in some circumstances black boxes were destroyed or never found. Experts say further developments such as cockpit video recorders and real-time data streaming are needed.

“The technology is there. Crash worthy cockpit video recorders are already being installed in a lot of helicopters and other types of airplanes, but they’re not required,” said Jeff Guzzetti, aviation analyst and former accident investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB. “There’s privacy and cost issues involving cockpit video recorders but the NTSB has been recommending that the FAA require them for years now.”

Watch the video to learn more.

— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.