Bringing in the developer tools under Codex
OpenAI announced on Nov. 4 (Nov. 5 Japan time) that it will acquire Pierre Computer Company, a U.S. developer tools company. It said the deal would accelerate its vision of making Codex "a place where teams can build software together with AI, from first idea to the version they ship." Pierre's open-source developer tools are already used in parts of Codex, and the company said it would build on that foundation.
Today we're announcing that OpenAI will acquire @pierrecomputer to accelerate our vision for making Codex a place where teams can build software together with AI, from first idea to the version they ship. Pierre’s open-source developer tools already power parts of Codex today. Together, we’ll build on that foundation for the agentic era.
The company did not disclose the price or when the deal would close. Closing requires customary conditions including regulatory approval, and until then the two companies will continue to operate as separate, independent companies.
Pierre announced the acquisition on X at the same time, with a video. Codex head Thibault Sottiaux welcomed the company on X, writing "Welcome Pierre."
an announcement from the pierre computer company
Computers have RAM, right? Welcome Pierre. Let's reinvent everything
File lists and diff views already used in Codex
Pierre offers "Trees," which displays file lists, and "Diffs," which displays code changes (diffs), as open-source software anyone can use. On its announcement page, OpenAI said that anyone who has viewed files or checked changes in the Codex app has already used Trees and Diffs. Pierre also makes "Highlights," which color-codes code as it is typed or written out by an agent.
Its paid product is "Code Storage." It is a storage system built on Git, which is widely used to manage code, and is designed for use by programs and AI agents reading and writing in place of people. A single repository (a place where code is stored) can hold up to 32TB and accept more than 30 simultaneous writes. It can sync content with GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket.
Pricing is pay-as-you-go: storage of data used in the past seven days costs $0.005 per GB per hour, and older data costs $0.0002. Data ingress costs $0.06 per GB and egress $0.15.
Customers include the AI app builders Lovable and Bolt, and the AI coding tool Amp. Pierre was in Y Combinator's winter 2023 batch, and its chief executive officer (CEO) is Jacob Thornton and its chief technology officer (CTO) is Ian Ownbey.
Same direction as "Pando," the internal Git released 2 days earlier
OpenAI had just published "Pando," a rebuilt back end for Git designed for its huge internal repositories, on its technical blog on Nov. 2 (Nov. 3 Japan time). The trigger was that the number of tasks a single engineer runs at once in Codex grew, sending pushes and fetches surging until the existing system could not keep up, and the company said it cut median push latency by about 80%. The announcement page for the Pierre acquisition also mentioned Pando.
Codex use is growing. Weekly users of Codex alone reached 7 million in July. Since then, only a combined figure with "ChatGPT Work," a feature for delegating tasks, has been given, and the two were reported to have reached a combined 40 million as of Oct. 7.
Pando, however, is for internal use, and the company is still exploring how to offer it externally. If the Pierre acquisition closes, OpenAI will also gain a Git storage product with outside customers. On its announcement page, OpenAI said it wants to advance the future of source code management for the whole industry, but it did not name specific products.
Overlap with GitHub over where development happens
Axios reported in its own story that the deal targets Microsoft's GitHub. OpenAI's announcement did not mention GitHub, saying only that it would rethink how Git is used for agents. Microsoft is a major shareholder in OpenAI and also owns GitHub.
AI coding companies have been buying up tools around software development one after another. OpenAI's acquisition to strengthen Codex follows Astral in March and Ona in June. Anthropic acquired Bun, the JavaScript runtime that underpins Claude Code, in December 2025. In the same month, developer tools company Cursor announced it would buy Graphite, a code review company. None of these disclosed the price.
| Announced | Buyer | Target | Target's field |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. 3, 2025 | Anthropic | Bun | JavaScript runtime |
| Dec. 19, 2025 | Cursor | Graphite | Code review |
| March 19, 2026 | OpenAI | Astral | Python developer tools (uv, Ruff) |
| June 11, 2026 | OpenAI | Ona (formerly Gitpod) | Cloud environments where agents run |
| Nov. 4, 2026 | OpenAI | Pierre | Code storage, diff display |
Customers and open source to continue, Codex pricing undecided
OpenAI said Code Storage customers could keep using it after the deal closes, and that in the meantime it would bring Code Storage's features into Codex. Open-source software such as Trees and Diffs will remain public, and OpenAI will also take part in their development.
However, the company has not said how Code Storage will be offered in Codex or how much it will cost. Customers Lovable and Bolt also have businesses that overlap with Codex in using AI to help build apps. Beyond the statement that they can keep using it, how they will be treated after closing has not been made clear.
StartupHub.ai of the U.S. pointed out that explanations of the hard parts, such as records and permissions for changes written by agents, review policies, and compatibility between Pando and Git, remain blank. It described the deal as an acqui-hire for talent and core technology presented as a business vision.
