US Justice Department Probes Andreessen Horowitz Over Board Seats at Rival AI Firms

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating venture giant Andreessen Horowitz over partners holding board seats at rival AI companies Databricks and Fivetran — a rare antitrust look at a firm that has become a key AI-policy adviser to the Trump White House.

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The U.S.
Justice Department is investigating venture giant Andreessen Horowitz over partners holding board seats at rival AI companies Databricks and Fivetran — a rare antitrust look at a firm that has become a key AI-policy adviser to the Trump White House.

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The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, over whether its partners improperly hold board seats at competing AI and data companies, Bloomberg reported Monday.

The probe, which sources say has been running for nearly a year, centers on Ben Horowitz's seat on the board of Databricks and partner Martin Casado's seat on the board of Fivetran — two data software companies backed by the firm. Casado also sat on the board of dbt Labs, which Fivetran acquired in June after the DOJ cleared the deal. The department continued its board inquiry after the acquisition closed.

The legal hook is Section 8 of the Clayton Act, a 1914 statute that bars "interlocking directorates": the same person serving as director or officer of two competing corporations. Bloomberg noted a wrinkle — the statute targets individual persons, and here multiple people from a single firm are involved, which could give the firm room to contest any enforcement action.

Such probes typically end with a director resigning one of the two seats, and Bloomberg's sources said the matter could also close without any action. A DOJ spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied the inquiry, saying only that the department "will continue to prioritize affordability for all Americans across our economy."

The investigation is notable because Andreessen Horowitz has been one of the most influential voices in AI policy during the Trump administration — Bloomberg previously described it as a "sounding board" for the White House, and Marc Andreessen has advised the Pentagon and the Federal Reserve on AI. The firm endorsed Trump in 2024; Andreessen donated more than $5 million to groups supporting his candidacy, and the firm and its co-founders are the largest donors to the upcoming midterms at $115.5 million, according to the New York Times.

Andreessen Horowitz manages more than $100 billion in assets, with stakes in SpaceX, OpenAI, Cursor and ElevenLabs, among others. Neither the firm nor Fivetran responded to requests for comment, and spokespeople for Databricks and the DOJ declined to comment.