Why MotherDuck refuses to fork DuckDB
Show notes
At a recent MCP developer summit, The New Stack spoke with Till Döhmen, AI lead atMotherDuck, about the company’s growing role in the evolving DuckDB ecosystem. Backed by investors includingTomasz Tunguz, MotherDuck is commercializing the open-source analytical databaseDuckDBwhile also expanding how employees interact with data through AI agents rather than traditional dashboards. Döhmen emphasized the company’s close collaboration withDuckDB FoundationandDuckDB Labs. Because MotherDuck operates what he described as the world’s largest fleet of DuckDB databases, the startup regularly pushes the database to its limits and feeds insights back to the core maintainers. Rather than forking DuckDB to create proprietary advantages, MotherDuck instead extends the platform through its existing architecture while contributing core improvements upstream when needed. The conversation highlighted the delicate but productive relationship between venture-backed companies and the open-source projects they commercialize, positioning MotherDuck as another example of startups driving both OSS adoption and strong business growth simultaneously. Learn more from The New Stack around the latest in DuckDB: DuckDB: Query Processing Is King DuckDB: In-Process Python Analytics for Not-Quite-Big Data Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.
Guests
Analysis: done · source seed