Amazon Web Services has announced the acquisition of DuckLabs , the Dutch startup behind DuckDB, the open-source embedded analytics engine that has become one of the most widely used data tools in recent years. The deal, confirmed by both companies on August 26, will be finalized in early September. While the financial details have not been disclosed, the transaction reflects the growing interest of major cloud providers in integrating open-source technologies that are critical infrastructure for thousands of developers.
DuckLabs operated as a company without external capital, founded more than five years ago by Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt, the original creators of DuckDB. The team, comprised of more than 30 people in Amsterdam, will remain together after the acquisition. The founders explained that they received offers from venture capital funds for years but decided to maintain their independence until the growth of their user base exceeded their operational capacity. Their collaboration with AWS began more than a year ago, working on integrating DuckDB with Amazon S3 Tables and Amazon SageMaker Lakehouse, an experience that paved the way for the acquisition.
What does the acquisition mean for DuckDB's future?
The community's main concern was whether the project would lose its open-source nature. The official answer is unequivocal: DuckDB, DuckLake, Quack, and the rest of the components of the so-called "Duck Stack" will remain under the MIT license, free of charge, and with accessible code. Governance will continue to rest with the DuckDB Foundation, an independent, non-profit organization that will also incorporate a new technical advisory board to gather community feedback. DuckLabs will maintain its offices in Amsterdam and continue contributing to the engine's development.
In addition, AWS will open the DuckDB extensions ecosystem so that external developers and organizations can sign and run their own extensions within the engine. This expands the current contribution model and prevents the ecosystem from becoming closed. In terms of adoption, DuckDB registers more than one million downloads daily, with peaks of up to three million, according to data cited by SiliconANGLE.
Context: the consolidation of the data market
The deal is not an isolated case. It comes amid a wave of acquisitions in the data infrastructure sector. Snowflake bought Crunchy Data, a PostgreSQL specialist, while Databricks acquired Neon, known for its serverless database. Analyst Michael Ni of Constellation Research summarizes the trend: "It's no longer about big data analytics: it's about becoming the AI-native data layer that unifies analytics, operational warehousing, and machine learning."
According to MarketsandMarkets, the global cloud analytics market was valued at $35.700 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $118.500 billion in 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 27,1%. In this scenario, Jefferies estimates that Databricks will exceed $6.900 billion in annual recurring revenue in the first half of its fiscal year 2027, while Snowflake is projected to reach around $5.500 billion, with year-over-year growth of 32%.
DuckDB doesn't directly compete with these cloud-native data warehouses, but its embedded nature has made it an ubiquitous analytics layer in applications and pipelines. For hyperscalers, controlling its developer is a strategic move that prevents a competitor from acquiring it. AWS's decision to buy, rather than build or simply support, the project validates DuckDB's importance as critical infrastructure based on modern database models.
What does this mean for developers and startups?
For those building on DuckDB, the news is reassuring. The MIT license remains in place, the independent foundation is still leading the project, and AWS has committed to ongoing development. There will be no forced migration or price changes for open-source users. However, deeper integrations with AWS services, such as S3 and SageMaker, are expected, which could simplify the creation of analytical pipelines but also increase vendor lock-in.
The DuckLabs case also serves as a reference for other open source projects. The company rejected VC funding for five years and achieved massive adoption, but ultimately the project's size overwhelmed a small team. The decision to join a hyperscaler instead of raising capital is an alternative that many founders will consider. The question is no longer whether a project can reach millions of users, but what structure it needs when that happens.
In Europe, the acquisition highlights the importance of tech talent in Amsterdam and the potential of open-source startups to attract major global players. The continuity of the team and the continuation of the project under the MIT license are positive signs for the community, although long-term privacy and governance will depend on how AWS policies evolve.
Finally, although the amount has not been made public, the move reinforces the idea that free software and open data are top-tier strategic assets. The alliance between a company founded by two researchers and Amazon's cloud arm demonstrates that the open source ecosystem can grow without compromising its principles, provided there is a solid structure behind it.
