Dropbox Buys Cloud Storage Startup Tigris Data for $350 Million

Dropbox is acquiring Tigris Data, a cloud storage startup based in Sunnyvale, California, for $350 million, the company announced Thursday. TechCrunch reported that the purchase appears to be the largest acquisition in Dropbox’s history.

Dropbox told TechCrunch it expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 and that it has no current plans to cut jobs as part of the acquisition. The buyer did not say whether it is paying in cash, stock or a mix.

What Tigris Data sells

Tigris Data runs an object storage service that works across several public clouds. Object storage holds large amounts of unstructured data, such as images or documents, rather than files arranged in folders. The startup’s system tracks where requests for data come from and moves copies of records to servers nearer to the users or computing jobs that need them, which cuts access times, according to SiliconANGLE. It also keeps the most frequently used files on faster storage hardware.

Some features target AI agents, software that carries out tasks on its own. One of them, called bucket forms, speeds up loading data into the isolated sandboxes where agents run and stops agents from changing data that other workloads depend on.

Tigris Data was started by former Uber engineers who had worked on the ride-hailing company’s storage systems, TechCrunch reported. It raised $25 million in a Series A round last year.

Dropbox’s new storage product for AI

Alongside the deal, Dropbox launched DBX Agent Cloud, its first product aimed at companies and developers building AI models and agents. It starts as stand-alone object storage that works with tools built for Amazon S3, Amazon’s widely used cloud storage service. Dropbox said Tigris Data will support this push into AI infrastructure.

The company plans to add file system features later, so agents can manage files and keep track of work across tasks and sessions, along with tools for handling documents, images, audio and video.

Changes for Dropbox subscribers

Dropbox also updated its main file-sharing service. Users can search for images by describing them, ask for plain-language summaries of a file or of recent changes to a folder, and have built-in AI models reformat, move or merge files into a PDF. Users can also pick between AI models and connect their Dropbox files to outside tools including ChatGPT, Claude and Muse.

The new features are rolling out first to Standard and Advanced customers in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. Dropbox said the updated experience has already reached more than 70,000 teams, and wider availability is planned for 2027.

What it means for employees and shareholders

The deal comes shortly after a round of job cuts. Dropbox reduced its global workforce by 9% last month, according to The Wall Street Journal, as reported by TechCrunch. The company’s statement that it has no plans to cut headcount because of the Tigris purchase applies to this deal only.

For shareholders, the acquisition is a bet that Dropbox can sell storage to businesses building AI systems, a market outside its core file-sharing subscriptions. It follows earlier purchases of AI-focused companies, including Reclaim.ai, Promoted.ai and Mobius Labs.

What to watch next

The next milestone is the closing, which Dropbox expects in the fourth quarter of 2026. Dropbox has not disclosed whether the deal needs regulatory approval. The planned file system and content processing features for DBX Agent Cloud, and the 2027 expansion of the new AI features beyond the first three countries, are the other dates to follow.

Sources: SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch