OpenAI has agreed to acquire Ona, a startup that offers cloud services to support artificial intelligence agents, part of a bid by the AI developer to make its technology more useful for businesses.

The deal, which hasn’t yet closed, will bring Ona’s team into OpenAI’s Codex effort, the ChatGPT maker is set to announce Thursday. More than 5 million people now use its Codex AI coding tools each week, the company said.

Ona’s services provide “secure, persistent environments where agents can access the tools, systems, and context they need to make progress over time,” OpenAI said.

OpenAI is currently in a fierce competition with longtime rival Anthropic PBC to develop and sell more advanced AI systems that can help business customers streamline work. The two startups have both filed draft paperwork to go public and are eyeing Wall Street debuts as soon as this fall.

Terms of the Ona acquisition were not disclosed.

— By Seth Fiegerman (Bloomberg News)