Amazon Web Services is acquiring DuckLabs, the software startup behind the open-source database DuckDB, according to a definitive agreement announced by the companies. The deal brings DuckDB co-founders Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt alongside their Amsterdam-based engineering team directly into AWS to advance high-performance analytics software that runs natively on cloud storage.
Amazon Web Services Targets Cloud Storage Analytics With DuckLabs Acquisition
Operations will stay anchored in Amsterdam, where the team originally built DuckDB as a specialized solution for querying large datasets without traditional data warehouse expenses.
The strategic move aligns with a broader industry shift toward analyzing information directly on cloud storage repositories like Amazon S3. Rather than forcing organizations to extract, transform, and load data into separate, costly warehouse setups, software like DuckDB allows developers to execute fast analytical workloads right where the raw files sit.
Future of DuckDB and the DuckDB Foundation
The acquisition explicitly excludes the core DuckDB open-source project itself, which will remain completely independent. According to DuckLabs, DuckDB will continue operating as a free and open-source project under the permissive MIT license, overseen by the independent DuckDB Foundation. Related ecosystem projects including DuckLake and Quack will also retain their open-source status.
To bolster project governance following the AWS agreement, the DuckDB Foundation is establishing a new technical advisory board. This board will grant leading technology members a formal voice in steering the future development and architectural milestones of the database. DuckLabs anticipates that the transaction will officially close in early September, pending standard closing conditions.
Background and Industry Context
Founded just over five years ago, DuckLabs deliberately bypassed traditional venture capital funding. The startup maintained independent ownership by its founders and employees while scaling its headcount past 30 people in Amsterdam. The business sustained its operations and engineering efforts through commercial support and feature-development contracts rather than external equity investments.
The deal aligns with industry trends to streamline data ingestion and query execution. By absorbing the co-founders and DuckDB creators, AWS secures critical talent to enhance its native storage analytics capabilities while keeping the underlying database technology freely available to the developer community.
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