• OpenAI confirms plans to acquire Ona and its agentic AI infrastructure
• Codex could benefit from Ona's infrastructure, which provides environments for long-running tasks
• Both companies have seen major rises in agentic AI users this year, marking a major shift

OpenAI has announced plans to acquire Ona, a startup that focuses on AI agents and their required environments, which could see the company get absorbed by OpenAI's Codex team.

Under the proposed deal, OpenAI would gain even more expertise to help AI agents work on long-running tasks that could even last days.

This comes as more organizations carry out agentic work over extended periods, hence the demand for more persistent infrastructure.

OpenAI announces plans to acquire Ona

"[Ona's] technology provides secure, persistent environments where agents can access the tools, systems, and context they need to make progress over time," OpenAI said in an announcement.

Ona builds secure cloud environments where AI agents can access enterprise tools and systems, retain context and continue executing even once a use closes their laptop or browser. The deal would effectively give OpenAI's Codex access to the infrastructure layer that allows agents to keep on working for much, much longer.

The ChatGPT maker also noted that Codex is evolving from a coding assistant into a much broader tool that helps more worker types – it now has five million weekly users. Ona also noted a 13x increase in weekly sessions since the beginning of the year, signalling major appetite for the tech.

After years of developing high-performance frontier models, OpenAI seems to finally be at the stage where it's now expanding investments to give agents the right tools, memory and environments, signalling a major shift from generative AI to agentic AI.

"After close, we are excited to join the Codex team and keep building toward a future where AI accelerates the economy and helps every team and every organization work more safely, more quickly, and more collaboratively," CEO Johannes Landgraf said, referencing the regulatory approval needed to proceed.

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With several years’ experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craig’s specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. He is also passionate about cars and the decarbonisation of personal transportation. As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value!