MIT professor Mike Stonebraker, known for his contributions to database technology, has launched DBOS, a new database-centric software stack at the forefront of modern data requirements. The stack reduces the operating system to a small kernel of low-level functions. DBOS officially launched with an $8.5 million seed investment, marking the culmination of a three-year joint research project between Stanford and MIT. Stonebraker's vision was influenced by a talk by Databricks CTO Matei Zaharia, who later became a co-founder and advisor for DBOS. The stack allows running traditional operating system tasks using SQL queries and offers time travel debugging capabilities. The company plans to target green field opportunities for new, database-centric application development while also allowing more established companies to move specific pieces or newer projects to DBOS. The $8.5 million seed investment was led by Engine Ventures with participation from Construct Capital, Sinewave, and Gutbrain Ventures.