DuckDB founders join AWS, project remains open source

Partnership · 2 September 2026 · Source: Help Net Security

DuckDB stays open source while the team behind it goes to work for Amazon — Image: Help Net Security

DuckDB founders Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt have joined Amazon Web Services as employees, while the open source analytical database remains under the stewardship of the DuckDB Foundation. The project, which is downloaded over a million times a day, will continue to be led by the founders and the team of more than 30 in Amsterdam.

The move follows two years of collaboration between AWS and DuckLabs, the company behind DuckDB. Andy Warfield, vice president and distinguished engineer at Amazon, said he was excited to help the project have an even broader impact.

The DuckDB Foundation will add a technical advisory board and open up the extension stack to allow third-party signed extensions. The founders said they made the move to ensure the project’s growth does not outpace their ability to support it, avoiding the need to build a sales and support organisation that would distract from engineering.

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