OpenAI to acquire Astral to boost Codex and expand AI-driven software development tools

OpenAI on March 18 announced it will acquire startup Astral, a developer of widely used open-source Python tools, in a move aimed at accelerating the growth of its Codex platform and expanding AI’s role across the software development lifecycle.

Also read: Microsoft weighs legal action over OpenAI-AWS deal, flags potential breach of Azure exclusivity

The deal, whose financial terms were not disclosed, is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Until the transaction closes, the companies will continue to operate independently.

Also read: OpenAI introduces GPT‑5.4 mini and nano, faster and smarter small AI models

Following the close of the deal, Astral’s team will join OpenAI’s Codex division, where the companies plan to develop tighter integrations between AI systems and everyday developer tooling.

Astral builds Python development tools such as uv for dependency management, Ruff for linting and formatting, and ty for type checking, software that underpins millions of developer workflows.

OpenAI said integrating Astral’s tools and engineering expertise will help evolve Codex beyond code generation into a more comprehensive system capable of planning, modifying, testing and maintaining software.

“By bringing Astral’s tooling and engineering expertise to OpenAI, we will accelerate our work on Codex and expand what AI can do across the software development lifecycle,” the company said.

The ChatGPT-maker added that Codex has already seen rapid adoption, with “3x user growth and 5x usage increase since the start of the year,” and now counts more than 2 million weekly active users.

Astral founder and CEO Charlie Marsh said the company would continue to focus on improving developer productivity as part of OpenAI.

“Astral has always focused on building tools that transform how developers work with Python—helping them ship better software, faster. As part of Codex, we’ll continue evolving our open source tools to push the frontier of software development,” Marsh said.

The acquisition underscores OpenAI’s broader push toward so-called “agentic” AI systems that can operate across entire workflows rather than perform isolated tasks.

OpenAI said it plans to continue supporting Astral’s open-source projects after the acquisition, while exploring deeper integrations that allow Codex to work more directly with developer tools.

“Our goal is simple: help developers move faster while maintaining the reliability and performance their workflows depend on,” the company said.