What's Happening
DuckLabs (co-founders Mark Raasveldt, Hannes Mühleisen) announced that they are joining AWS, with the merger expected to take effect in early September.
The team will remain in Amsterdam and continue developing DuckDB, DuckLake, and Quack.
DuckDB and the open-source components of "Duck Stack" will remain free and open-source under the MIT license, with the non-profit DuckDB Foundation continuing to manage the project.
Why This Decision?
DuckLabs chose a bootstrapping approach five years ago, with founders and the development team owning 100% of the company instead of seeking VC funding. They have grown to over 30 people.
Currently, DuckDB is downloaded over a million times per day, leading to concerns that a small company could become a bottleneck for the project's growth.
There was also a concern that expanding sales, support, and operations teams would detract from the technical work and open-source community engagement that were key drivers of success.
Existing partnerships were already limited to highly technical organizations with database expertise. To reach a broader user base, a different structure was needed.
Why AWS?
The two companies have been collaborating closely for over a year (AWS says closer to two years).
The goal is to combine AWS's infrastructure, scale, and customer reach with DuckLabs' technical expertise to create next-generation data services.
AWS has promised long-term development support for DuckDB and the community.
Andy Warfield, AWS vice president, stated that DuckDB is already widely used and loved by S3 customers. He also praised the DuckLabs team as one of the most technically deep, humble, and fast-moving teams he has ever worked with.
What's Changing?
A technical advisory board will be established within the DuckDB Foundation, allowing key community members to provide input on the technical direction.
The extension stack will be opened up, enabling other developers and organizations to execute signed extensions within DuckDB.
▶ Original Source: https://ducklabs.com/news/2026/08/26/ducklabs-to-join-aws
