OpenAI hires the team behind Xcode coding assistant Alex

Acqui-hires feel like they’re here to stay: The team behind Alex, a popular tool that lets developers use AI models within Apple’s development suite Xcode, is joining OpenAI.

In a post on X, Alex’s founder Daniel Edrisian said the startup’s team is joining OpenAI’s Codex division, which is building the company’s AI coding agent.

Y Combinator-backed Alex was founded in 2024 and sought to integrate AI models into Xcode. Apple, however, earlier this year updated Xcode to let users tap ChatGPT and other AI models without needing external tools. Edrisian didn’t mention if this was a reason his startup’s team has joined OpenAI.

“When we started out, Xcode had no AI. Building a “Cursor for Xcode” sounded crazy, but we managed to do it anyway. And, over time, we built the best coding agent for iOS & MacOS apps,” Edrisian wrote in his post.

In a post on Alex’s blog, the startup said that it would continue supporting existing users, though the app will no longer be able to be downloaded after October 1. The company noted that the team won’t add new features to the tool, but would maintain the product as long as existing users are using it.

Alex’s Y Combinator listing notes that the startup had three people working on the coding tool. It is not clear if all these employees are joining OpenAI.

We’ve asked OpenAI for a comment, and we will update the story if we hear back.

OpenAI has done a few similar “acquisitions” in the past, hiring only the team behind a startup rather than buying the whole company. The company earlier this week said it was acquiring product testing startup Statsig for $1.1 billion.