OpenAI announced that it has agreed to acquire Ona, a provider of secure cloud execution and orchestration technology, to enhance the capabilities of its rapidly growing Codex ecosystem.
The acquisition is intended to support the next phase of Codex, which OpenAI said is now used by more than 5 million people each week for research, analysis, software development, and workflow automation. According to the company, weekly usage has increased 400% since earlier this year.
Initially designed for software developers, Codex has evolved into a platform that helps users complete increasingly complex tasks. OpenAI noted that many of these tasks now unfold over hours or days rather than minutes, creating a need for persistent environments that allow work to continue independently of a single device or active session.
Ona’s technology provides secure, persistent cloud environments that enable agents to access the tools, systems, and context required to make progress over extended periods. The company has helped approximately 2 million developers move software development workflows into secure, reproducible cloud environments and shares multiple customers with OpenAI.
OpenAI said the acquisition will allow Codex agents to continue operating within customers’ own cloud environments, giving organizations greater control over infrastructure, data, security boundaries, and governance requirements while maintaining the intelligence and orchestration capabilities provided by OpenAI.
The companies said the move is aimed at helping enterprises transition from experimental AI deployments to production workflows, where issues such as access controls, credential management, logging, and review processes become increasingly important.
The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Until the acquisition closes, OpenAI and Ona will continue operating independently. Following completion, the Ona team will join OpenAI and work alongside the Codex team to advance secure enterprise execution capabilities and expand Codex adoption among organizations worldwide.
KEY QUOTES:
“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.”
Johannes Landgraf, Co-Founder And CEO, Ona
“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.”
Thibault Sottiaux, Core Products Lead, OpenAI
