About Onyx AI Labs
We didn't just get here.
Onyx AI Labs builds purpose-trained AI models — “brains” — for regulated and expert industries. Its Forge platform turns domain expertise and documents into production-ready, locally-deployable AI models, and its Cortex line of domain brains delivers citation-grounded answers with Ed25519-signed audit receipts. Onyx built Compass, the regulatory intelligence engine inside the SureStep GRC platform used by financial institutions. Onyx AI Labs is an NVIDIA Inception program member and Cohere partner, founded by C. Michael Gibbs, with 18 years of enterprise automation heritage through its sister company SureStep.
That heritage is hard-won — eighteen years of enterprise automation, seven years focused on AI governance and compliance — deliberately specialized for the industries where getting it wrong isn't an option.
Our clients operate in various regulated industries including financial services, healthcare, transportation and natural resources. There is zero tolerance for error when working with regulators. “The AI ate my homework” is not an excuse. We build zero-fault AI systems specifically for these industries. AI you can trust to keep you compliant.
Offices in Toronto, New York, Singapore, Amsterdam, and Dubai. We deliver across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific — bringing enterprise-grade AI discipline to growing businesses that demand real results.
Onyx AI Labs and SureStep
Onyx AI Labs builds the AI engine; SureStep delivers it for governance, risk, and compliance. Compass — the regulatory intelligence model inside SureStep's GRC platform — is a Cortex brain built by Onyx. Both companies were founded by C. Michael Gibbs and share 18 years of experience serving regulated industries. Visit SureStep
Enterprise discipline, delivered at pace.
Enterprise Methods, Any Size Business
We bring the same rigor used in Fortune 500 AI deployments — architecture reviews, threat modeling, deployment playbooks — scaled to fit your business, not your budget.
We Deploy, Not Just Advise
Strategy without execution is expensive noise. We deliver running systems — deployed into your environment with monitoring, rollback plans, and operational runbooks.
Governance By Default
Every system we build includes audit trails, approval gates, data boundary controls, and cryptographic receipts. Compliance isn't an afterthought — it's baked into the architecture.
How we got here
First Enterprise AI Engagements
Began deploying machine learning and automation systems for financial services and risk management clients. Learned what breaks in production — and what doesn't.
Governance & Compliance Specialization
Expanded focus to AI governance frameworks, regulatory compliance, and controlled deployment in highly regulated environments including banking and insurance.
First Banking AI Deployment
Delivered production AI systems for a major financial institution — model risk management, audit trails, and regulatory alignment built into every component.
APAC & EMEA Expansion
Established offices in Singapore, Amsterdam, and Dubai to serve growing demand across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East.
NVIDIA Inception & Cortex Launch
Joined the NVIDIA Inception Program. Launched Cortex, our line of purpose-trained domain AI models, starting with Compass — the citation-grounded regulatory intelligence brain now running inside the SureStep GRC platform.
Forge + Legion Go Live
Released Forge (vertical LLM factory on NVIDIA stack) and Legion (multi-AI deliberation platform). Expands production AI footprint across regulated industries.
What we believe
No Black Boxes
Every decision, every model output, every system action — traceable, explainable, auditable. We don't build systems we can't inspect.
Results Over Theater
We measure success by systems running in production, not decks delivered. If it doesn't work in the real world, it doesn't count.
Depth Over Breadth
We specialize in regulated industries — financial services, risk management, compliance. Deep domain expertise beats shallow generalization every time.
Client Success Is Our Success
Our metrics are your uptime, your audit scores, your team's confidence. We win when your AI systems deliver measurable business value.
Let's work together.
Whether you're exploring AI for the first time or ready to deploy in a regulated environment, we'd like to hear from you.
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