Travis Kalanick Wants to do a lot More Than Develop More Ghost Kitchens
March 20, 2025 | 1 min to read
At the Abundance Summit, billionaire entrepreneur Travis Kalanick unveiled his vision for CloudKitchens, which operates a growing real estate portfolio for food delivery restaurants. He suggested an ambitious future where AI-generated meals are delivered directly to customers. Kalanick compared CloudKitchens to earlier industry disruptors, emphasizing the importance of creating new markets rather than just capturing existing ones, citing past missteps of companies like Uber and Zynga.
Last week, at the Abundance Summit in Los Angeles, billionaire entrepreneur Travis Kalanick gave attendees a rare glimpse into his vision for the future of his newest company, CloudKitchens. While today the eight-year-old L.A.-based outfit is known for a growing real estate portfolio that it uses to host – and set up – restaurants that use its kitchens to fulfill food deliveries, Kalanick hinted at a full-stack future. In fact, he appears to be aiming to eventually deliver AI-perfected meals directly to customers.
Kalanick brought up the topic twice, in different contexts. First, during his informal sit-down with conference organizer Peter Diamandis, he drew parallels between CloudKitchens and earlier disruptions in other industries. He noted that taxi apps existed before Uber, but said their mistake was trying to take a “slice” of the existing market. That market, he explained, was both small and unreliable, as taxis could easily bypass the apps. Kalanick similarly referenced the gaming company Zynga, which initially built its business on Facebook’s platform, only to be later undermined by the social media giant.
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