AWS acquires Amsterdam's DuckLabs to scale DuckDB analytics

What's the deal? Amazon Web Services has agreed to buy DuckLabsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the Amsterdam-based developer behind the open-source analytical database DuckDBDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The deal is expected to close as soon as next month, with DuckLabs' team joining AWSDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to expand DuckDB's data services globally.

What does DuckLabs do? Founded just over five years ago, it built DuckDB, an embeddable, high-performance analytical database. Often called the analytics equivalent of SQLite, it lets developers run complex SQL queries inside their applications without managing server infrastructure.

Why now? The acquisition deepens a collaboration that began in early 2025, when the two added DuckDB support to Amazon S3 Tables and Amazon SageMaker Lakehouse. AWS wants to make its native analytics faster, simpler, and cheaper; DuckDB gets AWS's infrastructure and global reach.

What changes? DuckLabs' core engineering team stays in Amsterdam, led by co-founders Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt, and the nonprofit DuckDB FoundationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → remains steward. AWS says it will keep DuckDB and projects like DuckLake and Quack open-source under their MIT licenses.

What's the endgame? The deal frees DuckLabs from monetising open-source users through support contracts and paid feature work. AWS will fund the ecosystem instead, setting up a technical advisory board within the foundation and enabling signed extensions from third-party developers.

"DuckDB is an incredible open-source project with an amazing community; it is broadly used and very much loved by S3 customers today," said Andy Warfield, AWS vice president and distinguished engineer. "We are committed to the project's continued development in open source and under the stewardship of the DuckDB Foundation."

The signal: DuckDB's traction — more than three million downloads a day at one point — has made embeddable analytics too big for cloud giants to ignore. By buying the developer while pledging to keep the code open, AWS is betting it can grow the community and steer enterprises toward its own stack.

Read more: siliconangle.com

Image credit: NeoSpire