Free Araki-Woods factors are certain type III generalizations of free group factors. In this talk, we will explain how these von Neumann algebras arise quite naturally from the perspective of compact quantum groups. We will show that any (almost periodic) free Araki-Woods factor can be realized as a Haar distributional limit (with respect to the Haar state) of the generators of a suitably chosen family of Van Daele and Wang's non-unimodular free orthogonal quantum groups. We will also explain how this class of quantum groups naturally appears as distributional symmetries of free Araki-Woods factors. This talk is based on joint work with Kay Kirkpatrick.