OpenAI to acquire cloud platform Ona to power AI agents

OpenAI Acquires Cloud Startup Ona to Boost AI Agents

OpenAI has agreed to acquire Ona, a startup that provides secure cloud development environments for AI agents, as the company continues its acquisition spree aimed at strengthening its enterprise AI capabilities. The deal was reported by Bloomberg on Thursday.ona

From Gitpod to Ona

Ona, formerly known as Gitpod, rebranded in 2025 after pivoting from browser-based cloud development environments to what the company describes as “mission control for your personal team of software engineering agents”. The platform offers sandboxed cloud environments where AI agents can operate with full tool access, network connectivity, and enterprise-grade security controls including audit trails, role-based access, and kernel-level policy enforcement.infoq

The startup’s technology is designed to let organizations run fleets of AI coding agents in the background, triggered across codebases with repeatable workflows that execute on pull requests, schedules, or webhooks. Ona’s site describes the product as giving “every agent a secure workspace” and notes partnerships with companies including Stripe, Uber, and Cloudflare.ona

Codex’s Rapid Growth

The acquisition comes as OpenAI’s Codex coding tool has seen explosive growth. Codex surpassed 5 million weekly active users as of early June, according to OpenAI, with knowledge workers representing 20% of that user base and growing three times faster than developers. That figure has risen sharply from 4 million weekly users reported in late April and 1.6 million in early March.wsj

OpenAI has been on an aggressive acquisition path throughout 2026, having already purchased developer tooling startup Astral, AI security platform Promptfoo, consulting firm Tomoro, personal finance startup Hiro, and media company TBPN, among others. The company also filed confidentially for an IPO earlier this month.openai

Enterprise Push

Ona’s technology appears well-suited to OpenAI’s broader enterprise strategy. Codex already operates in isolated cloud sandbox environments, and Ona’s infrastructure for running agents at scale with governance controls could deepen those capabilities for corporate customers. OpenAI has been working with consulting firms including Accenture, Capgemini, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to sell Codex to enterprises, and recently merged its ChatGPT and Codex teams into a single product group.digitalapplied