Dropbox announced Thursday that it will acquire Tigris, an object storage startup serving AI developers, for $350 million. The deal marks Dropbox's entry into the commercial storage infrastructure market and will underpin DBX Agent Cloud, a new offering that lets developers purchase object storage directly from Dropbox.
Dropbox has deep experience managing storage at scale. Beginning in 2015, the company migrated more than 90% of its user data from Amazon's S3 service to an internal system called Magic Pocket to improve performance and reduce costs. However, selling storage infrastructure to external customers requires a different approach, according to Dropbox chief business officer Eric Webster.
Operating infrastructure for Dropbox and offering a storage product to developers involve different requirements. Tigris brings a working commercial product, an experienced team, developer relationships and early customer traction.
Eric Webster, Dropbox chief business officer
Tigris's existing customer base includes Amplified, Railway, Runpod, and Replicate—companies spanning developer hosting platforms, GPU infrastructure, and AI model deployment. These businesses require fast, dependable access to large data volumes while running applications and models across multiple environments.
Tigris's background and technology
Tigris was founded in 2022 by former Uber engineers Ovais Tariq (CEO), Himank Chaudhary (CTO), and Yevgeniy Firsov (chief architect). The startup has developed an S3-compatible storage platform enabling developers to maintain data accessibility across different cloud and compute environments.
For AI model training, this capability addresses a significant pain point: developers can store large datasets in one location while purchasing computing power from multiple providers. Using Amazon S3 in such scenarios incurs egress fees and potential delays when compute occurs outside AWS. Tigris eliminates egress fees and automatically positions data near where it is needed.
The company raised $25 million in a Series A funding round in October 2025, backed by Spark Capital and returning investor Andreessen Horowitz.
Webster explains that combining Tigris's product, customers, and developer relationships with Dropbox's experience operating storage infrastructure at scale will accelerate entry into the commercial storage market. "The acquisition lets us build on what both teams have already developed and learned from their customers," he says.
DBX Agent Cloud and the AI infrastructure opportunity
DBX Agent Cloud represents Dropbox's primary vehicle for this expansion. The service will allow developers building AI applications to purchase object storage infrastructure from Dropbox, with Tigris providing the underlying technology pending regulatory approval.
Webster frames the opportunity around the data demands of modern AI development. "AI applications are creating and working with growing volumes of content, from images and video to training datasets and model artifacts," he says. "As models and compute providers change, that content needs a consistent home."
AI applications are creating and working with growing volumes of content, from images and video to training datasets and model artifacts.
Eric Webster, Dropbox chief business officer
Dropbox, founded in 2007, has spent nearly two decades managing the complexities of storing and handling massive volumes of customer data across consumer and enterprise segments. The company now aims to apply that expertise to developers building their own applications.
"DBX Agent Cloud extends that expertise to companies and developers building applications, starting with standalone object storage," Webster says. The roadmap includes adding filesystem and content-processing capabilities, enabling AI applications to work with different content types, track files, and resume operations across sessions.
Dropbox has not yet announced a launch date for DBX Agent Cloud or detailed how the two companies' technologies will integrate. "We'll share more about the technical integration and availability as those plans develop," Webster states.
Existing Tigris customers will experience continuity following the acquisition's close. Webster confirms they will not "need to migrate or change how they use the service" and will "continue to receive support for the Tigris product." However, future product evolution remains uncertain as Dropbox develops additional filesystem and content-processing capabilities. "As the product evolves, we'll communicate directly with customers before any changes that affect them," Webster adds.
AI capabilities integrated into Dropbox's core product
On the same day as the Tigris announcement, Dropbox unveiled what it describes as a "major evolution" of its main product, introducing AI-powered capabilities that work directly on users' existing files and workflows.
Dropbox introduced Dash, an AI-powered search tool, in 2023, allowing users to locate information across Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Dropbox. The company is now expanding this functionality to let users instruct AI to perform direct operations on files, including PDF and image editing, folder reorganization, recording transcription, and multi-step task completion.
"Customers told us they wanted these AI-powered features directly in the product where their content and workflows already live," says Mike Torres, Dropbox's chief product officer.
Dropbox began integrating Dash into its core product last year, bringing AI-powered search, document summaries, and content question-answering capabilities. "The new experience builds on that foundation and what we've learned from customers, helping them move from finding and understanding information to organizing files, editing content, and completing supported multi-step tasks," Torres explains.
More than 70,000 teams have received access to the new capabilities, though Dropbox has not disclosed active usage numbers. Standard and Advanced plan subscribers receive an allocation of AI credits, with the option to purchase additional credits as needed.
Dropbox is offering users a choice of AI models within the product, alongside integrations with third-party services including ChatGPT and Claude. These integrations enable customers to work with their Dropbox files through external AI services without repeated uploads, with results saved back to Dropbox.
We want customers to have the freedom to use the AI tools that work best for them.
Mike Torres, Dropbox chief product officer
This approach mirrors the philosophy underlying the Tigris acquisition: enabling developers to choose their AI application environment while maintaining accessible underlying data. Dropbox is positioning itself to build a substantial infrastructure business around this proposition, though with the acquisition still pending regulatory approval and no launch date set for DBX Agent Cloud, the company's success in attracting developer adoption remains uncertain.