OpenAI Models and Codex Agent Coming to Google Cloud in Coming Weeks
Oct 21, 2026
OpenAI will make its most advanced artificial intelligence models and its Codex coding agent available through Google Cloud in the coming weeks, according to Reuters. The two companies announced the deal on Wednesday. It brings two competitors closer together and shows how important major cloud providers are becoming in making leading AI models available to customers.
The partnership will add OpenAI models, including GPT-6 Astra, to Google Cloud's Model Garden. Customers will be able to buy these models through Google Cloud Marketplace and use money they have already committed to spending on cloud services to pay for them. This information comes from a company blog post cited by Reuters. OpenAI is making this move to reach more business customers.
The deal will also let customers in industries with strict rules use OpenAI models through Google Cloud's access controls, tools for managing data, and systems for building AI workflows in which AI agents can carry out tasks.
Google, which is part of Alphabet, is the latest major cloud provider to offer OpenAI models. This follows the end of OpenAI's exclusive distribution deal with Microsoft in April. Since then, OpenAI has expanded distribution to Amazon Web Services and now Google Cloud. Each of these major cloud providers is competing to gain a larger share of the AI market.
The deal adds another layer to the complicated relationship between OpenAI and Google. They compete in major AI products and search, but the high cost of building and running large AI models gives them reasons to work together. Google has tried to make its cloud service a neutral platform where customers can choose from a wider range of AI models. Last year, Google also made a cloud deal with OpenAI to provide it with more computing power.
For Google Cloud, offering OpenAI models supports its plan to provide a wide choice of models made by other companies, rather than relying only on its own models. Thomas Kurian, chief executive of Google Cloud, previously told Reuters that the platform is open to different models and welcomes those that developers like to use.
The deal reflects a wider change across the industry: major cloud providers are becoming the main sales channels for companies developing the most advanced AI models. Cloud providers usually receive a share of sales made through their platforms. According to Anthropic's initial public offering filing, reviewed by Reuters, 47% of its revenue in 2025 came from the cloud platforms of Amazon and Google. Anthropic competes with OpenAI and is backed by Amazon and Google.