OpenAI’s New Move: Buying Ona to Boost Its Coding Bot

OpenAI has just announced it will buy the cloud‑security startup Ona. The purchase is aimed at giving its AI coding helper, Codex, more power to run long‑term jobs. Ona’s platform lets AI agents safely use tools, access data and keep context in the cloud. With this tech, Codex can help companies launch AI helpers that work on tasks without human hand‑holding. The deal’s price is still secret, and it must meet the usual legal checks before finalizing. Once closed, Ona’s team will hop onto OpenAI’s Codex squad and start building together. This acquisition is part of a broader strategy to keep up with rivals like Anthropic, whose own coding assistant Claude Code has been growing fast.

Codex already serves more than five million users every week, up from three million earlier this year. Anthropic has not released numbers for Claude Code. OpenAI’s growth continues as it files confidential paperwork with the SEC, following Anthropic’s similar move. Other big names are also heading to public markets: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, now merged with xAI, is set for a huge debut. OpenAI has been buying companies to stay ahead—prompt‑based security firm Promptfoo, healthcare tech Torch, and a Mac AI interface maker called Software Applications. In May 2025 it even acquired the hardware startup io for over six billion dollars. OpenAI’s new focus is clear: make AI tools safer, more capable, and easier for businesses to use.

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