Dropbox Taps NVIDIA To Push AI Forward

The battle lines for the future of artificial intelligence are starting to be drawn. Microsoft has OpenAI. Amazon has Anthropic. Google has…Google AI.

Dropbox announced recently that it’ll use NVIDIA’s foundry services from models to accelerated computing to drive Dropbox Dash and Dropbox AI. As companies battle for strategic positioning, this could be a way for Dropbox to keep up with the AI Joneses without breaking the bank along the way.

Dropbox’s AI Play

Unlike many AI startups, Dropbox isn’t building entirely new products with AI, it’s building AI tools that allow customers to search and modify the data that already lives on Dropbox servers. I think of it as a way to enhance how we use Dropbox today.

The challenge is, that Dropbox doesn’t have the resources or expertise to develop its own models (Google and Meta) and doesn’t have the balance sheet to fund one of the large AI startups (Microsoft and Amazon). So, it partnered with the company that makes the hottest GPU in town, NVIDIA.

I could see this being like a custom GPT without going through the hassle of creating…a custom GPT. It’s just there with all of your data.

This is the kind of optionality I like in an investment.

From the Dropbox Spotlight article:

This could play to Dropbox’s advantage as the AI future is built out. The company is smaller and could be more nimble than larger rivals in building out AI use cases that people actually use, whether that’s developing something new or replicating features that other companies find successful.

And Dropbox’s sales pitch to customers is that data won’t be used for ancillary products like search targeting or advertising like it could at Microsoft or Google.

Slow and Steady May Win the Race

Dropbox probably isn’t going to change the world with AI and that may be a good thing. Instead of betting the entire business on a risky AI concept, Dropbox is leaning on NVIDIA’s technology and finding ways to augment its position as a data repository for businesses that haven’t moved over to big tech.

That’s what differentiates Dropbox from competitors. It’s already the customer touch point and it holds the data that companies like OpenAI and Microsoft covet for model customization. Maybe Dropbox will be a great AI tool right out of the box!?!

Dropbox’s AI products and NVIDIA partnership may be a success and it may be a failure, but for investors, this is almost pure upside, not key to the investment thesis.

That’s a recipe for investing success.

Disclaimer: Asymmetric Investing provides analysis and DOES NOT provide individual financial advice. Travis Hoium does not currently have a position in Dropbox. All content is for informational purposes only. Asymmetric Investing is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor or a broker/dealer. Trading any asset involves risk and could result in significant capital losses. Please, do your own research before acquiring stocks.