Amazon has acquired DuckLabs, the developer of the open-source database DuckDB, but DuckDB will remain open source.



Amazon has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire DuckLabs , the company that leads the development of DuckDB , an open-source, high-performance embedded SQL database management system specializing in online analytical processing (OLAP) .

AWS to acquire DuckLabs, the company behind DuckDB
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/aws-ducklabs



AWS and DuckLabs: Building the future of analytics together | AWS Big Data Blog
https://aws.amazon.com/jp/blogs/big-data/aws-and-ducklabs-building-the-future-of-analytics-together/

Amazon's AWS and DuckLabs have been collaborating since 2024. Amazon describes DuckLabs, which it recently acquired, as possessing 'world-class database engineering expertise and a track record of developing software loved by developers.' The two companies have worked together to make AWS analytics faster, simpler, and more cost-effective, providing customers with more user-friendly tools.

Once Amazon's acquisition of DuckLabs is complete, the Amsterdam-based DuckLabs team will join AWS. Hannes Muhlweisen and Mark Larswelt, who founded DuckDB and co-founded DuckLabs, will continue to lead the team and provide technical direction for the open-source project. DuckDB itself will be managed by the independent DuckDB Foundation (a non-profit organization that manages DuckDB) and will continue to be provided as open-source software under the MIT License.

DuckLabs has also announced its acquisition by Amazon.

DuckLabs – DuckLabs to Join AWS, Projects to Remain Open Source
https://ducklabs.com/news/2026/08/26/ducklabs-to-join-aws



The DuckLabs team will remain in Amsterdam and continue their work on DuckDB, DuckLake , Quack , and the broader community. Regarding their acquisition by Amazon and joining AWS, DuckLabs stated, 'We can bring this technology to more developers and organizations and gain the resources and influence to pursue ideas on a scale that would have been difficult for us to achieve on our own.'

DuckDB also announced its move to AWS on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, posting: 'Today, DuckLabs joins AWS. This transition is expected to be completed by early September. Joining AWS will give DuckLabs the resources and reach to bring the DuckDB, DuckLake, and Quack protocols to a much larger number of developers and organizations, allowing us to pursue ideas on a scale that would have been difficult to achieve on our own. The DuckLabs team will remain in Amsterdam and continue to work for the Duck Stack community as a subsidiary of AWS. Most importantly, DuckDB and the other open-source components of Duck Stack will continue to be free and open-source under the MIT license, and the non-profit DuckDB Foundation will continue to manage the project. This is a significant moment for DuckLabs and the Duck Stack community. It marks the end of a chapter we are very proud of and the beginning of another chapter that will propel DuckDB far further.'



AWS CEO Matt Gurman responded to the post by saying, 'Welcome to AWS, Hannes, Mark, and the DuckLabs team. DuckDB has changed how developers work with data. It works anywhere, it's fast, and people pick it up because it just works. DuckDB remains free and open source under the DuckDB Foundation. We are excited to see what's next.'




GeekWire reports on Amazon's acquisition of DuckLabs, stating, 'This acquisition aligns with Amazon's broader efforts to transform its flagship cloud storage service, Amazon S3 , from a place where customers simply store data to a place where they analyze it. This gives Amazon a team with experience in developing fast, lightweight analytics software that works directly on data stored in cloud storage.' 'This shift is putting pressure on companies like Snowflake and Databricks, which provide a computing and governance layer on top of stored data. Both are major AWS partners and competitors, with a large number of customers running on Amazon's cloud. The advent of AI is increasing both the amount of data companies store in the cloud and the cost of analytics, intensifying the competition. Amazon says DuckDB is ideal for AI agents because AI agents will try and experiment with small amounts of data to determine what they need, much like humans do when they examine data.'

Amazon to acquire DuckLabs, adding the team behind DuckDB amid broader shakeup in cloud data – GeekWire
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-acquires-ducklabs-adding-the-team-behind-duckdb-amid-broader-shakeup-in-cloud-data/



The Register reports that 'AWS has been a fan of DuckLake for a long time,' noting that AWS Vice President and Principal Engineer Andy Warfield was 'very excited' about the announcement of DuckLake in the past. In an interview with The Register , Warfield said of DuckLake, 'It's been widely shared across teams, and everyone's trying it out. It's definitely sparking people's imaginations.'

AWS buys DuckLabs, the people behind the popular in-process OLAP database
https://www.theregister.com/databases/2026/08/26/aws-buys-ducklabs-the-people-behind-the-popular-in-process-olap-database/5292590



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