OpenAI buys Ona to push Codex toward long-running, autonomous coding tasks
Quick Answer
OpenAI has acquired Ona, a German startup specializing in AI agents and secure cloud development environments, to enhance Codex's capabilities for long-running, autonomous coding tasks.
Quick Take
This acquisition aims to improve software development efficiency and expand Codex's application in real-world scenarios.
Key Points
- Ona, formerly Gitpod, was founded in Kiel, Germany, in 2020.
- The acquisition focuses on improving Codex for autonomous coding tasks.
- Ona specializes in AI agents and secure cloud development environments.
- This move is expected to enhance software development efficiency.
📖 Reader Mode
~1 min readOpenAI is acquiring Ona, previously known as Gitpod, a startup founded in Kiel, Germany in 2020 that specializes in AI agents and secure cloud development environments for software development. The acquisition aims to expand OpenAI's Codex product with persistent, customer-controlled work environments. According to OpenAI, Codex is used by more than 5 million people per week, a 400 percent increase from the beginning of the year.
After the integration, Codex will be able to continue tasks over hours or days, even when the user's laptop is closed. The agents run in each company's own cloud, while OpenAI provides the models and orchestration. Agents need "more than intelligence," they need a "trusted workplace," said Ona CEO Johannes Landgraf. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals.
The purchase targets competition with Anthropic, whose Claude Code is considered the leader for long-running coding tasks. Just in March, OpenAI had brought the Python tools uv and Ruff into the Codex ecosystem through its acquisition of Astral, while it, like Anthropic, is taking its first steps toward an IPO.
— Originally published at the-decoder.com
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