OpenAI to acquire Ona

OpenAI is set to acquire Ona, integrating its secure cloud execution and orchestration technology into the rapidly expanding Codex ecosystem. This move aims to enhance Codex’s capabilities by providing a secure, customer-controlled cloud infrastructure for long-running AI agents across software and knowledge work. Codex, currently used by over 5 million people weekly, has seen a 400% increase in usage this year.

The acquisition addresses the evolving nature of Codex’s work, which increasingly involves tasks unfolding over hours or days. Ona’s technology provides persistent, secure environments, allowing agents to access necessary tools and context to make progress continuously. This ensures that work can proceed beyond initial sessions, enabling users to monitor progress and make decisions remotely.

Ona's expertise in migrating software development to the cloud, having supported 2 million developers in secure cloud environments, is crucial for Codex's next phase. This will enable agents to operate within a customer’s cloud infrastructure even when devices are offline. This capability is vital as organizations move from experimenting with AI agents to deploying them in production workflows.

The integration of Ona’s customer-controlled execution model will allow agents to operate within an organization’s own cloud environment, while OpenAI provides the intelligence and orchestration. This offers organizations greater control over their infrastructure, data, and security, without compromising Codex’s capabilities. Johannes Landgraf, Co-Founder and CEO of Ona, emphasized the need for a trusted workspace for agents, highlighting that joining OpenAI will empower organizations to confidently deploy agents.

This acquisition underscores OpenAI’s commitment to building AI systems that meet the stringent security and control requirements of real-world deployment. The combined efforts of OpenAI and Ona will help engineering teams safely undertake sustained work across the software lifecycle, from testing and issue resolution to application modernization and vulnerability addressing, thereby supporting complex workflows over extended periods.