Amazon Web Services announced Tuesday it has struck a definitive agreement to acquire DuckLabs B.V., the Amsterdam-based developer behind DuckDB, the open-source analytical database that has become one of the most popular data tools in the world, reaching over three million downloads per day at one point. The deal, expected to close as soon as early September, will see DuckLabs core engineering team continue to be based in Amsterdam, led by co-founders Hannes Muhleisen and Mark Raasveldt. DuckDB will remain fully open source under the stewardship of the independent, nonprofit DuckDB Foundation, with all projects continuing under their MIT licenses. DuckDB is often described as the analytics equivalent of SQLite, an embeddable, high-performance database that lets developers execute complex SQL queries directly inside applications without managing server infrastructure. AWS VP and Distinguished Engineer Andy Warfield said AWS is committed to the projects continued development in open source. The acquisition deepens a collaboration between DuckLabs and AWS that began in early 2025. AWS will establish a technical advisory board within the DuckDB Foundation to gather community feedback on the project roadmap.

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