OpenAI announced it will acquire Ona, bringing secure cloud execution technology into its Codex ecosystem. The move targets a growing challenge: as Codex handles increasingly complex work spanning hours or days, users need agents that persist beyond initial sessions and single devices.

More than 5 million people now use Codex weekly—a 400% increase from earlier this year. Originally built for developers, Codex now serves a broader audience handling complex tasks from request to completion. This expansion revealed a gap: substantial work requires ongoing execution environments that survive laptop shutdowns.

Ona has spent years helping 2 million developers migrate software development to cloud environments with security and reproducibility. Its technology creates persistent, customer-controlled environments where agents can access tools and systems while maintaining organizational security boundaries, credential scoping, and activity logging.

The acquisition, pending regulatory approval, will integrate Ona's team with OpenAI's Codex group to build persistent enterprise execution capabilities. This positions Codex for production deployment where organizations can run agents securely within their own cloud infrastructure while leveraging OpenAI's intelligence layer.