Dropbox buys Tigris Data for $350 million

The deal backs Dropbox’s push into AI infrastructure through DBX Agent Cloud, while the company also expands AI features in its core product.

Dropbox is buying cloud technology company Tigris Data for $350 million as it looks to strengthen its AI infrastructure. The deal, announced Thursday, appears to be Dropbox’s largest acquisition so far and comes as the company pushes further into tools for businesses building AI models and agents. It is also a clear sign that Dropbox wants to grow beyond file storage. The company is now putting more weight behind the systems that power AI services in the background.

Dropbox is building a new storage layer for AI tools

Dropbox said the Tigris Data deal is meant to support DBX Agent Cloud, a storage platform aimed at businesses and developers working on AI models and agents. The new service will initially offer object storage as a standalone product.

Customers will be able to buy that storage separately and use it with existing tools and applications built for Amazon S3, a widely used cloud storage service for storing and retrieving large amounts of data. According to IT-PUB News, that compatibility matters because Dropbox is trying to fit into tools companies already use, rather than asking them to rebuild around a new system.

In practical terms, Dropbox is trying to position itself as more than a file-sharing company. It wants a role in the infrastructure behind AI products — a more technical, enterprise-focused business than its consumer-facing roots. It is also a crowded market, where storage performance, speed, and compatibility can make a real difference.

Dropbox expands AI features inside its core product

Dropbox is also adding more AI functions to its main product. Users will be able to ask AI to carry out supported tasks using their files, choose between different AI models, and connect Dropbox content to third-party tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Muse.

The company said the updated experience has already reached more than 70,000 teams. For businesses, that suggests Dropbox is trying to make AI part of everyday file work rather than treating it as a separate add-on.

Dropbox also plans to expand DBX Agent Cloud with features that would help AI systems handle different kinds of content, including documents, images, audio, and video. Another planned addition is filesystem functionality that would let AI agents manage files and keep context across tasks and sessions.

Those are still planned capabilities, not features Dropbox said are fully available across the board. Even so, they show where the company is heading: deeper automation, tighter AI integration, and a stronger focus on keeping data useful across different tools.

Dropbox says the deal should close in Q4 2026

Dropbox told TechCrunch by email that the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. The company also said it currently has no plans to reduce headcount because of the acquisition.

That stands out because Dropbox already cut 9% of its global workforce last month, according to WSJ. The new statement does not undo that earlier reduction, but it does show Dropbox is not presenting the Tigris deal as a reason for further cuts.

For employees and outside observers, that detail matters. Large acquisitions often bring questions about restructuring, and in this case Dropbox is explicitly saying it does not currently intend to use the purchase as a trigger for layoffs.

Tigris Data brings storage technology built for speed

Tigris Data was founded by former Uber engineers who helped develop the ride-hailing company’s storage infrastructure. The company focuses on cloud storage technology that helps businesses store and access data across different regions.

Its platform automatically places data closer to the users and computing resources that need it, which can reduce access times and improve performance. That is especially relevant for AI workloads, where speed and data availability can shape how smoothly systems run.

Tigris Data raised $25 million in a Series A funding round last year. With the acquisition now announced, its technology is set to become part of Dropbox’s broader push into AI infrastructure.

Dropbox has already been active in AI-related acquisitions. Before Tigris Data, it bought Reclaim.ai, Promoted.ai, and Mobius Labs, all aimed at expanding its AI capabilities in different ways.

The latest deal suggests Dropbox is continuing that pattern, but at a larger scale. Rather than only layering AI features onto its existing product, the company is also investing in the storage and infrastructure underneath them.