The Justice Department has its sights on Andreessen Horowitz — and unusually, the firm itself is the target. An antitrust probe underway for nearly a year is examining whether a16z partners sitting on the boards of Databricks and Fivetran violate a 1914 law against interlocking directorates. Cofounder Ben Horowitz holds a Databricks board seat while partner Martin Casado sits on Fivetran’s board. Both companies compete in the data infrastructure space, helping businesses collect and analyze massive datasets.
Here’s the rub: these cases usually end with an individual director resigning from one board. Under the Biden administration, the DOJ forced roughly a dozen such resignations. But Bloomberg reports this probe is different — it’s aimed at the firm’s broader practice of placing partners on boards of companies that directly compete. That’s a meaningful escalation in how antitrust enforcers think about VC influence.
For context on what’s at stake, Databricks was last valued at $190 billion. Andreessen Horowitz manages around $90 billion in assets and counts OpenAI, SpaceX, and ElevenLabs among its portfolio. The firm’s scale means one partner’s board seat can shape information flow across an entire sector, not just one company.
Timing adds another layer here. Casado also sat on the board of dbt Labs, which Fivetran acquired in June — the DOJ cleared that deal only after months of review. Meanwhile, a16z has pushed aggressively to roll back AI safety rules under the second Trump administration, and its founders donated millions to a pro-Trump group in 2024. For a firm that’s spent years arguing Washington shouldn’t meddle in tech, the DOJ is now testing just how far that hands-off approach extends when competition itself is the question.
