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Ahmad Al-Dahle

Chief Technology Officer, Airbnb

  • Chief Technology Officer, Airbnb12

Ahmad Al-Dahle is Chief Technology Officer at Airbnb, which announced the appointment in January 2026. According to that announcement, Al-Dahle joined Meta in 2020 to lead mapping and applied AI within Reality Labs, founded Meta's Generative AI group in early 2023, and led the team behind the Llama family of open-source models, along with the teams bringing AI features to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Al-Dahle is listed among the core contributors of The Llama 3 Herd of Models (2024). Earlier, at Apple, Al-Dahle worked on the iPhone's display and multitouch systems and in 2014 created and led Apple's autonomous technology group.123

At a glance

Current role
Chief Technology Officer
Company
Airbnb
Sector
Company
Work listed
1
Sources cited
3
Profile reviewed

Career

Ahmad Al-Dahle began working at Apple on the iPhone in 2005, two years before its launch, and later joined full time. Airbnb's announcement describes Al-Dahle as one of the core technologists behind the iPhone's display and multitouch systems, and says Al-Dahle went on to ship features across nearly a dozen devices in Apple's core technology platform group, including the first Apple Watch.1

In 2014 Al-Dahle created and led Apple's autonomous technology group, which developed core AI systems for the company's self-driving car project. Al-Dahle joined Meta in 2020 to lead mapping and applied AI within Reality Labs.1

Generative AI and Llama

In early 2023 Al-Dahle founded Meta's Generative AI group, led the launch of the Llama family of open models, and headed the teams that brought AI features to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Al-Dahle is listed among the authors of The Llama 3 Herd of Models (2024), the paper describing the Llama 3 release.13

Airbnb

Airbnb announced Al-Dahle as its Chief Technology Officer on January 14, 2026. In a September 2026 Airbnb post on access to OpenAI frontier models, Al-Dahle is quoted as Airbnb's Chief Technology Officer describing how those models support the company's developer tooling.12

Work and contributions

  • Llama 3 Open weights

    Listed among the core contributors of The Llama 3 Herd of Models (2024), which the paper defines as people who worked on Llama 3 for at least two-thirds of the project's runtime; the paper says Meta publicly released pre-trained and post-trained Llama 3 models. Airbnb's announcement says Al-Dahle led the launch of Llama.31

Timeline

  1. Began working at Apple on the iPhone, two years before its launch.1
  2. Created and led Apple's autonomous technology group.1
  3. Joined Meta to lead mapping and applied AI within Reality Labs.1
  4. Founded Meta's Generative AI group and led the launch of the Llama models.1
  5. Listed among the authors of The Llama 3 Herd of Models.3
  6. Announced as Chief Technology Officer of Airbnb.1

Other documented roles

Roles the sources document that are not confirmed as current.

  • Led Generative AI and the team behind the Llama models (founded the Generative AI group in early 2023; joined in 2020 to lead mapping and applied AI in Reality Labs), Meta13
  • Created and led Apple's autonomous technology group (2014); earlier worked on iPhone display and multitouch systems, Apple1

Where they work

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References

3 sources · profile reviewed Oct 21, 2026 · data updated Oct 21, 2026

  1. Airbnb announces Ahmad Al-Dahle as Chief Technology OfficerAirbnb Newsroom · Announcement · published Jan 14, 2026 · accessed Oct 21, 2026
  2. Expanding access to OpenAI frontier models, including GPT-6 Astra (attribution to Ahmad Al-Dahle, Chief Technology Officer at Airbnb)Airbnb Newsroom · Announcement · published Sep 23, 2026 · accessed Oct 21, 2026
  3. The Llama 3 Herd of Models (arXiv 2407.21783), including the contributor appendixarXiv · Paper · published Jul 31, 2024 · accessed Oct 21, 2026