Agreed this is normal and a pretty regular thing to do with free float like that. As you pointed out, investing heavily in equities or other more risky assets

Agreed this is normal and a pretty regular thing to do with free float like that. As you pointed out, investing heavily in equities or other more risky assets is probably not normal and would be surprised if they did this - this would essentially mean they were more interested in being a hedge fund rather than Airbnb. Generally companies stay away from risky investments; even when the aim is for some purpose directly related to their core business things can go sideways fast. See, for example, Southwest and their fuel hedges, which were great when oil was going up huge back in 2007 but not so much anymore: https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/25/southwest-airlines-gets-burned-by-fuel-hedges-agai.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/25/southwest-airlines...