Back in 1994, databases were the must-have platform. Oracle, Sybase, Informix and IBM raced to prove they could ingest every corporate record and answer any question. Benchmarks mattered, keynotes packed theaters, and careers hinged on choosing the right engine. The promise: whoever ran the best queries would dominate business. Thirty-two years later, those names barely register. Oracle survives mostly as an invoice line. Sybase faded into SAP, Informix into IBM. The real winners are PostgreSQL and SQLite—neither was in the original tournament. PostgreSQL became the default open-source choice. SQLite now sits inside every phone, browser and app, a trillion-copy footprint you never configure. If large language models follow the same arc, the big launches won’t tell the story. The model you pick once and forget—like SQLite—might end up everywhere without buzz. Keep an eye on the quiet projects gaining real-world traction rather than the hype machines.