OpenAI Acquires AI Travel Startup Odessia
OpenAI has acquired Odessia, an AI travel agent startup founded by Francis Davidson, the former founder of Sonder. Davidson will now be working at OpenAI, focusing on the future of travel. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, it appears to be an acqui-hire. Odessia, which had raised $6 million and launched its AI travel agent about five months ago, has already been shut down.
This acquisition signals OpenAI's interest in leveraging AI for the travel industry, a sector where personal AI assistants are increasingly used. OpenAI has existing partnerships with travel companies and has previously identified travel planning as a potential use case for its ChatGPT agent. The addition of Davidson, a seasoned founder with experience in the travel tech space, could accelerate OpenAI's future travel-related product development.
November 10, 2026 2
