Dropbox ditched AWS S3 for its own in-house system. Now it’s buying Tigris to sell S3-compatible storage to AI developers.

Dropbox is expanding its reach into the AI infrastructure sector by acquiring Tigris, a startup specializing in object storage for AI applications. The cloud-storage giant announced on Thursday that it will pay $350 million for Tigris, a move aimed at bolstering Dropbox's own efforts in selling storage infrastructure to developers and businesses.

In addition to the acquisition, Dropbox also revealed DBX Agent Cloud, an upcoming offering that will allow developers to purchase object storage directly from Dropbox. This comes as no surprise, considering Dropbox's long-standing history of building its own storage infrastructure. In 2015, the company shifted over 90% of its user data off Amazon's S3 cloud storage service to an in-house system called Magic Pocket, aiming to enhance performance and cut costs.

Dropbox's Chief Business Officer, Eric Webster, notes that selling storage infrastructure to external customers presents unique challenges compared to operating infrastructure for Dropbox. Tigris brings a working commercial product, an experienced team, developer relationships, and early customer traction. Among Tigris's clients are companies like Amplified, Railway, Runpod, and Replicate, which cater to developer hosting platforms, GPU infrastructure, and AI model deployment.

Tigris's S3-compatible storage platform enables developers to maintain data accessibility across various cloud and compute environments. For AI model training, this means storing large datasets in one place while leveraging computing power from multiple providers. Tigris eliminates additional data-transfer costs, known as egress fees, and delays typically associated with using Amazon S3 in such scenarios.

Founded in 2022 by former Uber engineers Ovais Tariq (CEO), Himank Chaudhary (CTO), and chief architect Yevgeniy Firsov, Tigris has raised a $25 million Series A round of funding in October 2025, led by Spark Capital and backed by existing investor Andreessen Horowitz.

Dropbox sees an opportunity to leverage Tigris's existing product and developer relationships to build a more significant business in the commercial storage infrastructure market. As Dropbox Chief Business Officer Eric Webster explains, combining Tigris's strengths with Dropbox's experience in operating storage at scale would provide a faster path into this market. The acquisition will allow Dropbox to build upon the foundation both teams have already developed and learned from their customers.

In addition to the acquisition, Dropbox is making a "major evolution" to its main product, incorporating AI-powered capabilities directly into customers' existing files and workflows. This includes an AI-powered search tool, Dash, which was introduced in 2023, allowing users to find information scattered across various services like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Dropbox itself.