Core Viewpoint - The explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI) companies is driving unprecedented demand for computing power, with companies like CoreWeave, Together AI, and Lambda Labs successfully capitalizing on this trend by providing distributed computing resources [2][3] Group 1: Market Dynamics - Most enterprises still store data with the three major cloud service providers: AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, which were designed to keep data close to their own computing resources rather than distributed across multiple platforms [2] - Tigris Data aims to build a network of localized data storage centers to meet the distributed computing needs of modern AI workloads, emphasizing that without storage, computation cannot occur [2][6] Group 2: Financial Aspects - Tigris recently completed a $25 million Series A funding round led by Spark Capital, with existing investors like Andreessen Horowitz participating [3] - The CEO of Tigris, Ovais Tariq, criticizes major cloud providers for their expensive and inefficient data storage services, highlighting the "cloud tax" that customers incur when migrating data to other providers [3][4] Group 3: Customer Insights - Tigris has over 4,000 clients, primarily generative AI startups that build models for images, videos, and voice, often dealing with large and latency-sensitive datasets [5] - A customer, Fal.ai, noted that export fees constituted a significant portion of their cloud expenses, indicating the financial burden imposed by traditional cloud services [4][7] Group 4: Technological Advantages - Tigris offers a solution that allows access to the same data file system from all locations without charging export traffic fees, enabling workloads to scale across any cloud [7] - The company’s localized storage approach reduces latency, allowing developers to run AI workloads more reliably and cost-effectively on distributed clouds [6] Group 5: Regulatory and Control Factors - Companies are increasingly seeking to keep data closer to their distributed cloud options for reasons such as regulatory compliance in sectors like finance and healthcare, where data security is paramount [8] - There is a growing awareness among enterprises about the importance of data control, as exemplified by Salesforce's recent actions to prevent competitors from accessing its data [8] Group 6: Future Plans - With the new funding, Tigris plans to continue building data storage centers to meet rising demand, reporting an eightfold growth since its establishment in November 2021 [8] - The company has already established data centers in Virginia, Chicago, and San Jose, with plans for further expansion in the U.S. and Europe, including locations like London, Frankfurt, and Singapore [8]