OpenAI to acquire developer tooling startup Astral in boost for Codex team
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OpenAI has made several recent acquisitions, including cybersecurity startup Promptfoo, and health-care technology startup Torch.
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Astral's team will join OpenAI and help build out its artificial intelligence coding assistant called Codex . The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition. "Through it all, though, our goal remains the same: to make programming more productive. To build tools that radically change what it feels like to build software," Astral's founder and CEO Charlie Marsh wrote in a blog post. AI coding assistants have exploded in popularity over the last year, and OpenAI has been racing to grab users and market share from rivals like Anthropic and Cursor , which have their own buzzy offerings for developers. OpenAI said Thursday that Codex has more than 2 million weekly active users, and that the tool has seen a three-fold increase in user growth since the start of the year. The company's acquisition of Astral is still subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. OpenAI has made a number of recent acquisitions, including the $6.4 billion deal in May 2025 for Jony Ive 's AI devices startup io. The company announced earlier this month that it will purchase the cybersecurity startup Promptfoo , and it bought the health-care technology startup Torch in January. In December, OpenAI hired Google's Albert Lee to lead corporate development, a signal that the company will continue to hunt for M&A targets that can help it gain an edge. WATCH: OpenAI renews focus on enterprise in all-hands meeting amid IPO push watch now VIDEO 1:34 01:34 OpenAI renews focus on enterprise in all-hands meeting amid IPO push TechCheck Read more CNBC tech news Micron revenue almost triples, tops estimates as demand for memory soars Uber to invest up to $1.25 billion in EV maker Rivian in deal to launch 50,000 robotaxis Meta is shutting down VR social platform Horizon Worlds in further pivot away from the metaverse Meta’s Manus launches desktop app to bring its AI agent onto personal devices amid OpenClaw craze Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and...
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