AWS Acquires DuckLabs to Position DuckDB as 'SDK for Data'

AWS has acquired DuckLabs, the company founded by DuckDB developers Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt, as The Register first reported. While AWS already operates the Redshift data warehouse, Andy Warfield, AWS VP and Distinguished Engineer, told The Register that DuckDB serves as "connective tissue" for data processing tools and acts as an "SDK for data."

Because DuckDB is an embedded system written in C++, it runs within a host application's memory space without requiring a separate DBMS server. This architecture allows developers to execute small queries locally before "graduating" to centralized engines for larger datasets. Warfield noted that DuckDB's SQL verbs, such as "connect" and "attach," enable cross-engine interactions with remote SQL endpoints, including RDS, Redshift, and third-party systems like Microsoft Fabric and Google BigQuery.

The database will continue to be open source under the MIT License despite the acquisition. The DuckDB Foundation, led by Raasveldt and Mühleisen, will continue as an independent non-profit, though its governance is expected to expand.

Industry observers suggest the deal provides critical scaling resources. Andy Pavlo, VP of Research at ClickHouse Labs, told The Register that Amazon's funding will help DuckDB keep pace with modern DBMS development and rising CI/CD infrastructure costs. Jordan Tigani, co-founder of MotherDuck—which raised $52 million in VC funding in 2023—expressed some nervousness regarding the hyperscaler's involvement but acknowledged that the acquisition would likely accelerate the development of open-source DuckDB.