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Welcome to Runtime! Today: As developers try to get all that AI code deployed, they're turning to a fast-growing startup, Switzerland's military cybersecurity teams turn to openDesk, and more.
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Letting out string: As developers embraced AI coding agents over the first half of this year, they quickly learned that when producing code is fast and easy, integrating and deploying that code into production applications gets much harder. Now the search is on for tools that can help them manage all that code and make sure it works, is secure, and can run at scale.
Buildkite is a 13-year-old Australian startup that is seeing a surge of interest from big companies like Airbnb and Shopify as well as open-source developers as a CI/CD (continuous integration/deployment) tool that can handle the increasing number of build jobs demanded by AI coding agents. The tool allows developers to retain control over their code while letting Buildkite do the heavy lifting, unlike other CI/CD tools that need developers to upload their code to get the desired results.
Why AI developers are loving Buildkite for CI/CD
Buildkite is a CI developers can love, with a hybrid approach that gives a front seat to the increased velocity of software development in 2026.
The StackMary Branscombe
"We manage the control plane, [offer] managed UX and the developer experience but you bring your own compute in such a way that the control plane can orchestrate the builds and the CI workloads without having to have code access,” Buildkite's Chris Atkins told The Stack. Companies can run it on the cloud or their own hardware, and can also configure the build process to incorporate business logic: "skip expensive integration tests on draft PRs, add security scans only when dependencies change, or fan out test suites across hundreds of agents based on historical execution times," AWS Australia's Sarah Bassett explained.
It's not cheap, but Buildkite allows developers to exert more control over the build and deploy process, and developers like being in control. Just as infrastructure as code changed the way companies provisioned new servers, Buildkite hopes allowing developers to code CI/CD pipelines will help them get all that AI-generated code safely and quickly into production.
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Living on the edge: One of the unique characteristics of Buildkite is that it can run on all types of hardware, from autonomous vehicles to satellites. In this week's STACKUP, Noah Bovenizer chats with Luffy founder and CEO Matthew Carr, who is working on neural networks that can run on edge devices like automated drones.
STACKUP: The Stack’s weekly tech startups and funding wrap
This week’s rounds and milestones.
The StackNoah Bovenizer
Quitting the Teams: Several cybersecurity teams within Switzerland's military have either already switched or are in the process of switching office productivity tools from Microsoft 365 to openDesk, which could be a harbinger of similar moves from European countries and companies. "Microsoft 365 is a very good solution, but it's not suitable for an army like ours, which places higher demands on the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of its data," Simon Müller, head of the Swiss Cyber Command, told Republik.
Swiss government cyber units to ditch Microsoft for openDesk
“Microsoft 365 is a very good solution, but it’s not suitable for an army like ours.”
The StackKiera Fields
Babylon on the bayou: As Meta continues to tease plans for an enterprise infrastructure computing service, it's pouring more money into data-center construction. The company now plans to spend $50 billion, up from estimates of $27 billion last year, on a 5GW site in Louisiana, and it spent more words patting itself on the back for all the great things it's doing for the people of Louisiana than providing actual details about the project in a press release.
Meta pours tens of billions more into data centre projects
Louisiana centre gets an expansion ahead of rumoured cloud business and despite AI model controversy.
The StackNoah Bovenizer
Just walk out: Apple's decision to file a trade-secrets lawsuit against OpenAI late last week revealed some curious details about the way the $4.6 trillion company manages employee data and the offboarding process. "Departing employees have been taking actions to evade security measures, such as failing to provide two-weeks’ notice, and ignoring outreach by security personnel to schedule exit processes and security reviews, all of which may help to conceal the misuse and misappropriation of confidential information," Apple said in the lawsuit, and that feels like something a corporation with Apple's resources should be able to manage, especially given its notorious penchant for security in the Steve Jobs years.
Apple failed to spot data exfiltration, OpenAI suit shows
Apple’s lawsuit describes a campaign of theft – and also a failure of basic security, such as managing company laptops and spotting sensitive documents being emailed.
The StackPhillip de Wet
We're also reading:
Security analysts working for the Department of Homeland Security decided two actual real security incidents flagged by its tools over the last month were false positives, which resulted in the loss of confidential information, according to Nextgov/FCW.
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