Coalesce 2025 keynote
Tristan Handy · Oct 14, 2025 · 1h 38m · Las Vegas, Nevada
Summary
The day after dbt Labs announced its merger with Fivetran, Handy used the opening keynote to explain the deal and the case for an open data stack that preserves customer choice, joined by Fivetran CEO George Fraser. The product news centered on the new dbt Fusion engine reaching preview on the dbt platform, state-aware orchestration that skips unchanged models, and a remote dbt MCP server for AI tools.
Key themes: Data platforms, Open source, Agents · AI-written summary from the published transcript
- 1dbt Labs had announced its merger with Fivetran the day before; Handy explained what it means for the community5:54
- 2Handy argued integrated suites can limit choice and raise costs, and the stack should preserve user choice9:19
- 3Fivetran CEO George Fraser joined Handy on stage14:54
- 4The dbt Fusion engine became available in preview on the dbt platform for eligible projects55:26
- 5With Fusion, state-aware orchestration rebuilds only models whose inputs changed, with no project rewrite1:06:16
- 6A remote dbt MCP server became publicly available so AI tools can use a project's models, lineage and tests1:23:33
Announced
1 available the same day| Announcement | Status |
|---|---|
| Merger with Fivetrandbt Labs and Fivetran to merge | Announced |
| dbt Fusion engine on the dbt platformNew engine in preview | Preview |
| State-aware orchestrationRebuild only changed models | Preview |
| Remote dbt MCP serverdbt context for AI tools | GA |
Related keynotes
| Date | Keynote | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 8, 2024 | dbt Coalesce 2024Tristan Handy · 1h 32m · 4 announcedData platforms, Open source, AI coding | Data platforms, Open source, AI coding | One dbt: teams on different clouds and data platforms, like Databricks and Snowflake, can reference each other's projects | 4 |
About this keynote
Keynote page: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhBsI2LQQ90
- Tristan HandyFounder and CEO, dbt Labs
Companies named: Fivetran, dbt Labs
Last changed 2026-09-24.
Sources: official keynote videos, their captions and the hosts' recaps, summarized by AI; watch the source for exact wording. Logos via logo.dev; trademarks belong to their owners.