Box, Inc. has expanded its Box Zones to 10 global locations, adding new regions in Switzerland, Israel, and Singapore, while enhancing its France and Canada Zones with additional in-region compute capabilities. These updates enable organizations to securely store content within regional boundaries, helping meet local compliance and data residency requirements while enhancing security, visibility, and control over data protection.

With these additions, Box Zones now spans locations including Australia, the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Across all Zones, storage and key processing activities, such as content uploads, downloads, and file encryption, will occur in-region. This structure allows customers to activate preferred regions, define a default Zone, and assign users to specific Zones within a single Box instance without disrupting the user experience.

Data Residency and Compliance

As organizations face requirements to ensure data is stored and processed within specific geographic boundaries, Box Zones provides a flexible way to support data residency. By ensuring content follows its owner and remains managed within a single enterprise environment, Zones helps organizations meet regional compliance requirements and securely deploy AI-powered use cases without creating collaboration silos.

"Data residency has become a non-negotiable business decision for multinational enterprises and regulated industries," said Samantha Wessels, SVP EMEA at Box. "With these new Box Zones investments, we’re giving our customers more choice over where their content, metadata, and AI-powered workflows are handled."

Security and Governance Capabilities

Box supports global data residency through frameworks like EU and UK Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs) and the Cloud Computing Compliance Control Catalogue (C5). The company extends these capabilities through products such as Box KeySafe for independent encryption key management and Box Governance for content lifecycle management. Additionally, Box Archive supports long-term compliance, while Box Shield and Shield Pro provide advanced security controls to protect sensitive data.

These capabilities are supported by independently assessed compliance certifications and standards, including ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, FedRAMP High, HIPAA/HITECH Act, SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3.

Availability and Future Plans

The new regions for Box Zones will be available in the coming months for customers on Enterprise Plus and Enterprise Advanced plans. Pricing is fully inclusive, granting access to all Zones with no additional per-region fees. Box also plans to introduce in-region storage and processing for content metadata and Box AI later this year.

Box Inc. CEO Aaron Levie warned that recent developments in AI governance could accelerate a global shift toward open-weight artificial intelligence models as countries seek greater control over their own digital infrastructure. Levie argued that uncertainty around AI access is pushing nations to reconsider reliance on U.S.-controlled systems, introducing strategic risk for governments and businesses dependent on foreign-built AI.

Open-Weight AI Models And Sovereign AI Shift

In a post on X on Sunday, Levie stated that the "big winner" in the current environment would be open-weight models. He noted that a new precedent has emerged regarding the possibility that "a model could be pulled back," creating a dynamic that introduces strategic risk for entities relying on foreign technology. He added that if access can be restricted at any time, "this poses very real risk on relying on technology from a particular country."

Levie suggested that regulatory focus on the "model layer" rather than the "applied layer" could have unintended geopolitical consequences. He wrote that the game theory the U.S. should consider is that other countries now have increased incentive to develop sovereign AI. Consequently, the most likely response from other nations would be increased adoption of open-weight models, which allow independent deployment and customization. Levie noted these systems are "generally not coming from the US" at present.

AI Scrutiny And Industry Developments

The comments arrive amid broader regulatory scrutiny in the AI sector. OpenAI was previously investigated by multiple state attorneys general over its data practices, safety measures, and consumer impacts ahead of a potential IPO. The company stated it would cooperate with regulators.

Separately, NVIDIA Corp. announced a $26 billion plan to develop open-weight AI models, a move supported by Block Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey. This expansion signals a shift beyond chips into model development, driven by global competition and concerns about technological fragmentation. Meanwhile, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that advanced AI systems require stricter oversight, arguing that governments should be able to block or reverse unsafe deployments.