Capital One CEO Richard Fairbank said the company sees many opportunities in travel but first it needs to focus on the “build out” of the Hopper technology that it acquired in April.
“In April, we brought the technology and capabilities that power Capital One travel in-house,” Fairbanks said during Capital One’s first-quarter earnings call Tuesday. “We now fully own the technology that we have built in partnership with Hopper, and the Hopper talent we’ve worked with will join Capital One.”
This was the first time that Fairbanks publicly discussed the Hopper deal with investors.
In November 2025, Skift broke the news that Capital One was set to acquire the installed software from Hopper that powered Capital One Travel, and that it would hire key hotel and engineering staff. In March 2026, Skift reported exclusively that Capital One would make a payout to Hopper, and around 150 Hopper employees would transition to over.
Fairbanks said Capital One’s “numbers starting in the second quarter will include Brex and the in-sourcing of our travel business, as well.”
Capital One’s vendor fee to Hopper will now likely get reclassified as an internal operating expense, and Capital One takes on the the salary, benefits, and equity costs of the 150 Hopper employees.
Capital One has made several moves to build its travel business. They include the Hopper deal; what Fairbank characterized as Capital One’s “game-changing” acquisition of the Discover card network in May 2025; and the acquisition of payments and business travel platform Brex.
Fairbanks said Capital One is investing in marketing and technology, including AI infrastructure, to grow “our heavy spender franchise at the top of the market including rewards, lounges, unique access to experiences and breakthrough digital capabilities.”
He said investments in Discover slope toward toward the geographies that have the highest rate of travel by our customers.”
Capital One is phasing in access to Capital One Travel for Discover cardholders, adding a substantial new customer base. Capital One Travel also recently launched its first travel app.
Capital One acquired the Hopper tech that the two companies developed over the years to power Capital One Travel, but did not buy the rights to all of Hopper’s tech.
“We still own and operate all of the tech related to our B2B business, and this has no impact on our business,” a Hopper spokesperson told Skift Wednesday. “Capital One’s comment specifically relates to CapitalOneTravel.com.”
