Final week, on the Abundance Summit in Los Angeles, billionaire entrepreneur Travis Kalanick gave attendees a uncommon glimpse into his imaginative and prescient for the way forward for his latest firm, CloudKitchens. Whereas at this time the eight-year-old L.A.-based outfit is thought for a rising actual property portfolio that it makes use of to it host – and arrange – eating places that use its kitchens to meet meals deliveries, Kalanick hinted at a full-stack future. In actual fact, he seems to be aiming to finally ship AI-perfected meals on to prospects.
Kalanick introduced up the subject twice, in numerous contexts. First, throughout his casual sit-down with convention organizer Peter Diamandis, he drew parallels between CloudKitchens and earlier disruptions in different industries. He famous that taxi apps existed earlier than Uber, however stated their mistake was making an attempt to take a “slice” of the prevailing market. That market, he defined, was each small and unreliable, as taxis might simply bypass the apps. Kalanick equally referenced the gaming firm Zynga, which initially constructed its enterprise on Fb’s platform, solely to be later undermined by the social media large.
Turning to CloudKitchens, he identified that eating places counting on Uber Eats or DoorDash face an analogous problem. “You’re getting yield optimization on a factor that’s constructed for one thing else,” he stated. If you happen to’re “on someone else’s platform,” he warned, “they will squeeze you.”
Later, when an viewers member requested Kalanick about the way forward for CloudKitchens and its use of AI, Kalanick once more hinted that CloudKitchens isn’t content material to perpetually present turn-key restaurant areas. He talked, for instance, about cooking-as-a-service — very like driving has turn out to be a service as an alternative of one thing all of us do for ourselves — and insisted that wholesome meals will probably be made out there to all and “not simply the rich.”
He additionally talked at a excessive stage about AI’s position in remodeling the bodily world, distinguishing between ‘AI for bits’ (reminiscent of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Grok) and what Kalanick known as ‘atoms AI’, that means AI that interacts with the bodily world.
Sadly, as an alternative of poke additional, Diamandis moved onto the subsequent attendee’s query. And Kalanick hasn’t but responded to a request for extra data. But when the final word thought is to ship prospects AI-optimized breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Kalanick isn’t the one billionaire making an attempt: famed e-commerce entrepreneur, Marc Lore, has raised substantial funding for a enterprise, Marvel, which launched as a spiffed-up ghost kitchen however is steadily increasing its ambitions — and actively speaking about it.
Final November, when the New York-based outfit acquired the supply service GrubHub, Lore informed Trendster that Marvel is aiming to “put the items collectively to… handle what you eat and your well being in a method that’s by no means been carried out earlier than.”
Throughout that very same in-person interview, Lore went into nice element, portray a future the place AI-driven meal planning seamlessly integrates with a buyer’s dietary preferences, well being targets, and wearable machine knowledge. Describing an AI system that would tailor meal suggestions primarily based on real-time well being knowledge, reminiscent of, say, blood check outcomes indicating excessive mercury ranges, he stated that Marvel’s “massive imaginative and prescient” is to be “the tremendous app for mealtime.”
It sounded on the time like fantasy, the concept of waking as much as a personalised, health-focused meal plan designed by AI. But each Kalanick and Lore have observe information of disrupting industries that didn’t appear weak to disruption — Kalanick with Uber, and Lore with Jets.com. If they’re focusing on the identical future – one the place AI-driven meals providers totally substitute conventional cooking – it provides credibility to the concept that this shift might not be a matter of ‘if’ however ‘when.’
Within the meantime, Kalanick plainly has the eye of different founders who’re desperate to study from him. Earlier than Kalanick wrapped up his speak final week, one other keen viewers member requested Kalanick for extra “unknown truths” after Kalanick earlier informed these gathered that “being early is worse than being unsuitable.” He didn’t hesitate to reply the query, saying that it’s essential to “see one thing no one else does” to be able to construct an enormous enterprise. Continued Kalanick, “You must see the distinction between notion and actuality, the place everyone thinks actuality is right here, but it surely’s really over there.”
Marvel has thus far raised $1.6 billion from traders. CloudKitchens has reportedly raised an analogous quantity of funding, although it has been tighter-lipped about all the things it’s doing thus far.
