DuckDB stays open source while the team behind it goes to work for Amazon
DuckDB founders Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt join AWS as DuckLabs is acquired; DuckDB and DuckLake remain open source under the DuckDB Foundation.
Amazon Web Services hired DuckDB creators Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt through the acquisition of DuckLabs, the bootstrapped 30-plus-person Amsterdam company behind the in-process analytical database downloaded more than a million times a day. DuckDB, DuckLake, and Quack remain MIT-licensed open source under the nonprofit DuckDB Foundation, which holds the IP and continues stewardship; the team stays in Amsterdam with the founders keeping technical leadership. The Foundation will add a technical advisory board and open the extension stack so extensions signed by other developers and organizations run in DuckDB.