Databricks Buys Electric: PGlite for AI Agent Sandboxes

Databricks has acquired Electric, the company behind PGlite, a lightweight version of Postgres. PGlite allows Postgres to run within applications, browser tabs, user devices, or AI agent sandboxes, rather than on a separate server. This acquisition expands Databricks' Postgres offerings into the distributed environments where AI agents operate. Each agent will run its own local Postgres instance through PGlite, while synchronizing information back to a central Lakebase Postgres system. Electric's real-time synchronization engine keeps these distributed agents aligned, preventing them from using outdated information or duplicating efforts. Companies are moving towards agentic applications, where AI agents decide what data they need at runtime and often update their context. These agents run in sandboxes, and constant calls to a central cloud database can slow them down. Databricks believes a single managed database is no longer enough, as agents require both durable, governed data and fast-changing local context. Electric's PGlite has seen significant growth, with weekly downloads increasing from 1 million to 13 million between August 2025 and August 2026. This move strengthens Databricks' database strategy, providing both centralized infrastructure with Lakebase and smaller-footprint options for edge and embedded uses with Electric. This matters because it addresses the evolving needs of AI agents for distributed state and real-time data synchronization.