OpenAI Acquires Ona to Secure and Expand Codex

OpenAI Strengthens Codex with the Acquisition of Ona

OpenAI recently announced its intention to acquire Ona, a company specializing in secure cloud environments, to enhance the capabilities of its Codex platform. This acquisition aims to enable Codex to perform complex tasks over extended periods while adhering to the security, governance, and compliance requirements of enterprises.

On June 11, OpenAI officially confirmed this strategic acquisition, emphasizing that the integration of Ona's technology will allow Codex to operate autonomously within enterprise infrastructures. Currently, Codex is used by over 5 million users each week, a figure that has increased by 400% since the beginning of the year.

Integration of Ona's Technology into Codex

With the acquisition of Ona, OpenAI plans to integrate secure and persistent execution environments in the cloud into its Codex ecosystem. This integration will allow Codex agents to handle long-duration tasks, even when laptops are closed, thus providing greater flexibility to users.

Codex, initially designed to assist developers, is now used for a variety of tasks, such as information retrieval, data analysis, content creation, and automation of complex processes. Agents can operate over extended periods, allowing users to initiate a task, close their laptop, and later resume tracking its progress while maintaining control over critical decisions.

Ona will join OpenAI's Codex team after the acquisition is finalized, thereby enhancing secure enterprise execution capabilities.

Security: A Crucial Challenge for AI Agents

Ona brings valuable expertise in cloud security, having helped numerous developers migrate their workflows to secure and compliant environments. Nearly 2 million developers have already used Ona's technologies to work in secure and shared environments.

For organizations, it is no longer sufficient to have a high-performing model; they must also ensure governance, access control, credential management, activity logging, and validation of agent actions. Ona's execution model meets these requirements, allowing agents to operate directly in the client's cloud while retaining control over infrastructures and data.

Johannes Landgraf, co-founder and CEO of Ona, explains that agents need a trusted workspace that offers context, control, and collaboration to meet business needs.

A Significant Impact on the AI Agent Market

OpenAI's acquisition of Ona marks an important step toward the industrialization of AI agents. Companies are now seeking solutions capable of integrating their business processes into secure environments. By adding persistent execution capabilities to Codex, OpenAI positions itself as a leader in the enterprise agent platform market.

Potential use cases include software lifecycle management, automated testing, incident resolution, application modernization, and vulnerability remediation. These scenarios require agents capable of operating continuously while adhering to internal security policies.

Thibault Sottiaux, head of core products at OpenAI, emphasizes that companies are looking for agents capable of performing concrete tasks while meeting their control and trust requirements.

The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approvals, but once finalized, the teams from Ona will join OpenAI to develop secure enterprise execution capabilities and expand the adoption of Codex to a larger number of organizations worldwide.