OpenAI said it will acquire Ona, a cloud infrastructure startup, in a move aimed at making Codex more useful for long-running work inside secure enterprise environments.
The deal is designed to give Codex agents a persistent place to operate, allowing them to keep working beyond a single active session. OpenAI said that as Codex has become more capable, more of its value comes from tasks that take hours or days rather than minutes. The company wants users to be able to delegate larger jobs without staying tied to the original machine where the work started.
Codex is already used by more than 5 million people each week, according to OpenAI. The company said usage is up 400% from earlier this year. What began as a tool for software developers has broadened into a system for research, analysis, building and automation across a wider range of knowledge work.
Ona brings technology focused on secure, persistent cloud execution and orchestration. OpenAI said that experience will help Codex agents access the tools, systems and context they need over time, even after a user closes a laptop or leaves a session.
OpenAI framed the acquisition as part of a broader effort to move agents from experimentation into real production workflows. The company said enterprises need more than capable models. They also need controls over where agents run, what they can access, how credentials are scoped, how activity is logged and how work is reviewed.
Ona has spent years helping developers move software development from local machines into cloud environments. OpenAI said the company has helped 2 million developers work in secure, reproducible cloud setups and supports multiple shared customers.
That background, OpenAI said, fits the next stage of Codex. The goal is for agents to continue operating inside a customer’s own cloud environment while OpenAI supplies the intelligence and orchestration behind the experience. The company said that approach should give organizations more control over infrastructure, data and security boundaries.
OpenAI Core Products Lead Thibault Sottiaux said enterprises want powerful agents that can do real work while still meeting the security and control requirements of their environments. He said Ona should help make Codex easier to deploy securely across production workflows for customers with high standards for trust and scale.
Ona co-founder and CEO Johannes Landgraf said agents need more than intelligence and require a trusted workspace. He said Ona was built to provide cloud environments with the context, control and collaboration enterprise users need, and said joining OpenAI would help bring that foundation into Codex.
OpenAI said the acquisition still needs customary closing conditions, including required regulatory approvals. Until the deal closes, OpenAI and Ona will continue operating as separate and independent companies.
After closing, Ona’s team is expected to join OpenAI and work with the Codex group on secure, persistent enterprise execution capabilities. OpenAI said the combined effort is meant to help scale Codex to more companies worldwide.
The company said the technology could support engineering teams handling sustained work across the software lifecycle, including running tests, resolving issues, modernizing applications, addressing vulnerabilities and managing complex workflows over time.
The acquisition follows a series of recent OpenAI announcements as the company continues to expand its enterprise offerings and infrastructure partnerships. OpenAI said the Ona deal is part of its plan to build AI systems that help people and businesses accomplish more while still meeting the security and control needs of real-world deployment.