OpenAI Acquires Ona to Catch Up with Claude in the AI Race

OpenAI recently announced the acquisition of the startup Ona, which specializes in cloud environments for artificial intelligence agents. This move aims to enhance the autonomy of Codex, OpenAI's flagship tool, amid increased competition with Claude, developed by Anthropic.

Ona, which already has 2 million customers, offers secure and reproducible cloud environments. OpenAI hopes to integrate this expertise to enable Codex to operate autonomously, even when the computer is turned off, by utilizing the client's cloud.

Claude, the Undisputed Leader

Claude Code, developed by Anthropic, has established itself as the benchmark in the coding domain, capturing a significant share of professional usage. Anthropic has also gained an edge with Cowork, a tool capable of autonomously managing files and tasks. This dominance translates into annualized revenues of $30 billion for Anthropic, compared to $24 billion for OpenAI.

In light of this situation, OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, has initiated an internal restructuring, focusing on Codex. The integration of Ona is expected to allow OpenAI to stand out by offering greater control over data access and action traceability.

An Intensified Acquisition Strategy

The acquisition of Ona is part of a broader strategy by OpenAI, which has ramped up its acquisitions in recent months, including Software Applications, Torch, and Promptfoo. Rather than developing internally, OpenAI opts to absorb missing technologies.

This race for innovation is all the more crucial as both companies have recently filed for an initial public offering. Competition hinges on computing power, revenue, and subscribers, and it remains to be seen if this acquisition will be enough to reassure investors. The deal is still subject to regulatory approvals, and both companies will continue to operate independently until its finalization.