OpenAI has agreed to acquire Ona, bringing its cloud execution and orchestration technology into OpenAI's Codex product.
The acquisition is intended to support longer-running software and knowledge-work tasks inside Codex. More than 5 million people now use Codex each week, up 400% from earlier this year.
Codex began as a tool for software developers but has expanded into a broader range of work, according to OpenAI. Users now rely on it to research, analyse, build and automate tasks from an initial request through to a finished result.
A central issue for OpenAI is how to let agents continue working for hours or days without being tied to a single machine or an active user session. Ona's technology is designed to provide persistent cloud environments where agents can access tools, systems and context over time.
That would allow work to continue inside a customer's own cloud environment after a user leaves a session or closes a laptop. It would also give users a way to monitor progress, provide direction, make decisions and review results from different locations.
Cloud control
Ona has spent several years helping developers move software development work from local machines into cloud-based environments. OpenAI said Ona has supported 2 million developers in secure, reproducible cloud workspaces and that the two companies already share multiple customers.
The acquisition reflects a wider market shift as companies move from testing AI agents to deploying them across day-to-day business workflows. In that setting, infrastructure controls such as where software runs, what systems it can access, how credentials are limited, how activity is logged and how outputs pass through review have become more important.
OpenAI said Ona's model lets agents run within an organisation's own cloud environment while OpenAI supplies the intelligence and orchestration layer. The arrangement is meant to give customers more control over infrastructure, data and security boundaries.
For enterprise customers, that could address one of the main barriers to broader use of AI agents in regulated or security-sensitive settings. OpenAI said adding Ona would help make Codex easier to deploy securely across production workflows.
Executive comments
Johannes Landgraf, co-founder and chief executive officer of Ona, said the deal is about trust and control.
"Agents need more than intelligence; they need a trusted workspace. We built Ona to give agents cloud environments with the context, control and collaboration enterprises require. Joining OpenAI lets us bring that foundation into Codex, helping organizations deploy agents with confidence and giving humans more agency over their work," Landgraf said.
OpenAI also framed the acquisition around deployment needs inside large organisations.
"Enterprises want powerful agents that can do real work while meeting the security and control requirements of their environments. Ona will help us make Codex easier to deploy securely across production workflows for customers operating at the highest standards of trust and scale," said Sottiaux.
The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Until it closes, OpenAI and Ona will continue to operate as separate companies.
Once completed, the Ona team is expected to join OpenAI and work with the Codex team on secure, persistent execution for enterprise use. OpenAI said the combined effort would support engineering teams across the software lifecycle, including testing, issue resolution, application modernisation, vulnerability work and other complex workflows carried out over time.