The U.S. Department of Justice has been quietly investigating venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) for nearly a year over whether its partners' board roles at competing AI data companies violate antitrust law, Bloomberg reported.
At the center of the probe are board seats held by a16z at both Databricks and Fivetran — two companies that were once considered to operate in separate corners of the data market but whose businesses have increasingly converged as AI reshapes the data infrastructure landscape.
Ben Horowitz, the firm's co-founder, sits on Databricks' board of directors, while other a16z partners hold positions at Fivetran. The concern is that having the same venture capital firm's partners sitting on the boards of direct competitors could facilitate the exchange of competitively sensitive information.
Unlike previous cases where individual directors held seats at competing companies, this probe targets the firm itself for orchestrating the arrangement. The investigation, which has not been previously reported, has been ongoing for approximately a year.
The probe lands at a sensitive time for Silicon Valley. The AI boom has created massive new data companies, and venture capital firms like a16z have invested aggressively across the sector. As AI companies that once served different markets begin competing for the same enterprise data contracts, the question of whether VC board oversight crosses antitrust lines has become urgent.
The investigation is part of a broader enforcement trend. The DOJ has signaled increasing scrutiny of how dominant firms in the AI supply chain exercise their market power, from chip manufacturing to cloud infrastructure to data processing.
Neither a16z, Databricks, nor Fivetran have commented publicly on the investigation. The outcome could set important precedents for how venture capital firms manage portfolio company governance in the AI era.
