ABNB is a contrarian buy; despite underperforming the market, its underlying business remains strong.

I also wanted to talk about Airbnb. This is a company that generated a lot of enthusiasm several years ago. Airbnb is the world's largest alternative accommodation marketplace.

They have more than 5 million hosts, more than 8 million active listings, and billions of cumulative guest accesses since the platform launched nearly two decades ago.

Increasingly, this is a platform that goes beyond simply renting homes. They add layers of diverse services and experiences. They have a small but rapidly growing hotel sector.

Again, the market hasn't liked the stock much for a few years, and it still isn't, as much of the investment focus has shifted towards artificial intelligence. But to put some numbers into their growth story, revenues in the second quarter of 2026 were around $3.6 billion.

That exceeded expectations. An increase of 17% year-on-year. The total value of bookings reached $27 billion, an increase of 16% year-on-year. They generated more than $1 billion in free cash flow and nearly $1 billion in net income that quarter.

As you know, CEO Brian Chesky has been very clear that Airbnb is trying to become the one-stop app for travel and lifestyle.

Interestingly, he was known for being extremely cautious about AI-powered travel planning until as recently as early 2025. He said it was still too early, but then they began integrating AI-based customer service solutions.

They have now moved to use artificial intelligence to improve search and discovery processes and personalize the Airbnb platform user experience.

Airbnb has allocated what I believe to be around $250 million to relaunch the app and expand into lifestyle services. As you know, artificial intelligence allows Airbnb to enhance its features and reduce product launch times by up to 60%.

They are now solving about 45% of customer problems initiated by the smart assistant without human intervention. Therefore, they see real, tangible returns for the platform and for the business through the use of these AI solutions.

Airbnb is essentially a technology platform, and management has spent a few years being one of the most skeptical of the AI hype. So, interestingly, Chesky is now saying, as he mentioned in the second quarter, right after the second quarter earnings call in an interview on CNBC, that he thinks it's safe to say now that artificial intelligence is the best thing that has happened to Airbnb.

This is a major shift from what the situation was years ago.

He stated that they would continue to spend significantly more on AI computing costs than originally budgeted, without giving a specific dollar figure. But, you know, this is an interesting growth story.

They are working on diversifying their business, and growing in somewhat new markets.

It is clear that North America is too saturated for them. They are focusing on less-penetrated markets such as Brazil, Japan and India. Those markets are growing at roughly twice the rate of their primary markets.

This is also a company that regularly engages in share buybacks, with more than $1 billion in the last quarter alone. So, it's a really interesting company. Clearly, if you look at the stock, it hasn't kept pace with the broader market, but the underlying business activity is still holding up very well.

Therefore, it is at least worth considering if you are looking for an investment that goes against the grain.

Yes, this is a company I have a problem with, because it's profitable, isn't it? I believe it generated $4.8 billion in free cash flow.

They keep saying they are a technology company, but a technology company cannot be so far behind. In this way, we can be the one-stop app for everything. There are many things they should have done almost a year ago, and I think that would have accelerated growth more quickly.

Why doesn't Airbnb have something similar? Meaning, to push me to return to the app and spend more through the platform. Because yes, everything else there is very smooth. It's great.

The fact that they realized that hotels might be a category we should expand into. Finally, it's starting to happen because it's growing at a very rapid pace, but there are things I feel they could have done much better.

I spoke about this, I think, two years ago or so. Finally, they are moving in the right direction, such as the app becoming a place where you can simply open the Airbnb app and chat with their chatbot, acting as a smart travel assistant.

This should have been something they had been working on for a very long time.

I still believe that it is a company where partnerships with external companies will be the best way forward.

Okay. Well, that's another interesting thing. I mean, this platform has been known for a long time as an alternative to traditional hotel stays, so I think that's part of why they've maintained their platform's segmentation in this way.

But we have seen that these business models coexist, haven't we? Traditional hotels are here to stay, and at the same time, people love the flexibility of booking stays and experiences in homes and other locations around the world. So, I think the growth story is there.

So, I'm not saying rush in and buy a huge stake in Airbnb, but I think it's still a quality company trading at a discounted price, and I still think there's an interesting growth story.

She spoke about Shopify and Airbnb, two interesting companies that continue to grow in the age of artificial intelligence, but receive far less attention from investors.