Chesky is co-founder and chief executive officer of Airbnb, the homestay and vacation services company with more than 4 million hosts worldwide. The San Francisco-based publicly traded company has had more than 1.5 billion guests since it was founded in 2008 and reported revenue of $8.4 billion in 2022.
The majority of Chesky's fortune is derived from his stake in Airbnb, an online marketplace for travel services. Chesky founded the company in 2008 with Nathan Blecharczyk and Joe Gebbia. It has more than 4 million hosts and has served more than 1.5 billion guests, according to the company's website.
Chesky holds about 63.5 million of the unlisted Class B shares in Airbnb, according to a November 2023 regulatory filing. Of these, 2 million shares are pledged to a loan and are not counted towards his net worth, according to an April 2023 filing. He also owns about 17.6 million Class A shares in Airbnb, according to the same November 2023 filing.
Airbnb's press office didn't respond to emailed requests for comment on Chesky's net worth.
Chesky was born on Aug. 29, 1981, the son of two social workers, according to a June 2015 article in Fortune. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design he moved to San Francisco and rented a flat with classmate Joe Gebbia. Running short of rent in October 2007, they sold sleeping spaces in their apartment and decided to commercialize the idea.
After being joined by engineer and co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, the trio started a website in August 2008 and were accepted into startup incubator Y Combinator in 2009. A year later they received their first round of venture capital funding. The company's December 2020 initial public offering was the biggest-ever of its kind in the U.S. at that time.
The trio joined the Giving Pledge in June 2016.