Dropbox Buys Supercomputing Startup — And That Makes Perfect Sense

Dropbox, the online file-sharing startup, just acquired a company that provides instant access to your very own virtual supercomputer.

This company is called PiCloud, and on Monday, it revealed the acquisition with a short blog post, indicating that its online supercomputing service was struggling to find firm financial footing.

“We’re so proud of how far PiCloud has come, but it’s become clear that the industry we’ve chosen is not ready for the fast-paced growth demanded by a venture-backed business,” the San Francisco-based outfit wrote. “For this reason, the team has decided to join Dropbox, a company full of bright, ambitious individuals whose values remind us of our own.”

In a statement emailed to WIRED, a Dropbox spokeswoman said the company sees a similar affinity with PiCloud. “Dropbox and PiCloud share a similar vision,” the statement reads. “We respect what the team at PiCloud has built, and we’re excited about the top-notch talent that has come on board.”

This may still sound like an odd match, but the acquisition is a nice metaphor for a widespread trend in the world of the internet: Behind the scenes, the world’s most popular web services are turning into supercomputers that processing massive amounts of information with each passing second. These companies — from Google and Facebook and Amazon to Dropbox and Twitter — need the expertise of people who know how to build the most complex and powerful of computing systems.