OpenAI has acquired Ona, formerly known as Gitpod, a German startup based in Kiel that specialises in AI agents and secure cloud development environments. This purchase aims to integrate persistent, customer-controlled workspaces into the Codex product, which currently serves over five million people weekly. After the deal completes and receives regulatory approval, Codex agents will operate within a company’s own cloud infrastructure to execute tasks over hours or days, even when user devices are offline. While OpenAI supplies the underlying models and orchestration, the agents require a trusted workplace rather than just raw intelligence to function effectively in long-running sessions. Ona CEO Johannes Landgraf emphasised that this environment is critical for complex software development workflows.
The acquisition marks a strategic move to compete directly with Anthropic, whose Claude Code is currently regarded as the market leader for sustained coding tasks. By combining its massive model capabilities with Ona’s infrastructure, OpenAI seeks to dominate the autonomous coding sector as both companies prepare for initial public offerings. The integration also reflects a broader trend of consolidation in the AI software space, following OpenAI’s recent purchase of Astral to incorporate Python tools like uv and Ruff. This expansion allows OpenAI to offer a more complete, end-to-end development experience that rivals the depth of existing solutions from competitors.
- OpenAI is acquiring Ona to enable Codex agents to perform long-duration coding tasks within secure, client-hosted cloud environments.
- The deal positions OpenAI to challenge Anthropic’s Claude Code, which currently leads the market for autonomous, persistent coding assistance.
- Following the integration, users will retain control over their data while leveraging OpenAI’s models for extended software development workflows.
