OPENAI BOUGHT A TRAVEL STARTUP — THEN SHUT IT DOWN THE SAME DAY

OpenAI acquired Odessia, an AI travel agent founded by Sonder co-founder Francis Davidson, who announced on November 10 that he is joining OpenAI to work on the future of travel. The standalone service shut down the same day; financial terms were not disclosed.

Odessia had raised a $6 million pre-seed round led by Sequoia, launched its agent about five months ago, and handled more than $60 million in bookings during a summer preview. OpenAI has announced no travel product plans — the deal lands the same week it launched Businesses in ChatGPT.