The a16z interlocking directorates probe has been running for nearly a year, with the US Department of Justice examining whether Andreessen Horowitz partners holding board seats at competing AI data companies violates the Clayton Act’s prohibition on overlapping directorships. No enforcement action has been taken yet.
What the a16z interlocking directorates probe actually covers
At issue are two board positions. Co-founder Ben Horowitz sits on the board of Databricks, while partner Martin Casado serves as a director at Fivetran. Both companies operate in enterprise data infrastructure: Databricks builds data lakehouse and AI application tooling; Fivetran moves and centralises data from databases and third-party sources. The DOJ is assessing whether their overlap is close enough to trigger the Clayton Act’s interlocking directorate provision.
Casado also sat on the board of dbt Labs before Fivetran acquired that company in June. According to Bloomberg, the Justice Department reviewed the transaction for months after it was announced in October but cleared the deal without conditions. The separate board investigation began around the same time as the merger review and has continued after the acquisition closed.
The probe carries a wrinkle that prior enforcement actions did not. Regulators are examining whether the Clayton Act applies to a venture firm whose representation spans multiple partners across competing boards, rather than a single individual sitting on two boards simultaneously. Bloomberg reported that several courts have accepted that the law applies to entities as well as individuals, though a16z could contest that reading if allegations are ever filed.
Under former Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, the DOJ revived interlocking directorate enforcement. Ari Emanuel stepped down from Live Nation Entertainment’s board in 2021, and directors connected to more than 10 other companies left boards during enforcement actions in 2022 and 2023. The typical resolution has been a director exit, not litigation.
Databricks anchors the firm’s AI exposure
Databricks is the portfolio company with the most riding on the outcome. Last week the company announced $5 billion in new funding at a $190 billion valuation, making it one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world. Horowitz led a $14 million seed round in 2013; years of follow-on participation have left him holding potential returns valued in the billions, per Bloomberg.
The investigation sits alongside a fundraising backdrop that puts the firm’s scale in context. Andreessen Horowitz closed a $15 billion fund raise, its largest ever, more than doubling the amount it raised in 2024 according to CNBC. TechCrunch reported that Ben Horowitz put the raise at more than 18% of all US venture capital dollars deployed in 2025, placing the firm neck-and-neck with Sequoia Capital among the largest venture firms globally.
The a16z blog post on the raise broke down the $15 billion across six strategies: Growth ($6.75 billion), other venture ($3 billion), Apps ($1.7 billion), Infrastructure ($1.7 billion), American Dynamism ($1.176 billion), and Bio + Health ($700 million).
That fundraising haul landed against a weak market for limited partners. Axios, citing preliminary data from PitchBook and the NVCA, reported that US venture firms secured just $66.1 billion in new funds in 2025, down from $101.3 billion in 2024 and well below the 2022 peak of nearly $223 billion, the weakest year for VC fundraising since 2017. The $15 billion raise brought total AUM to more than $90 billion as of January.
Among the fund vehicles in the raise, an SEC Form D filing shows one registered as Andreessen Horowitz LSV Fund V (Unblocked), L.P., a Delaware limited partnership signed by Chief Operating Officer Phil Hathaway on 8 January 2026.
Washington proximity has not slowed the inquiry
The DOJ probe has continued through a period of deepening political ties. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz donated millions to a Trump-aligned group during the 2024 presidential race; Horowitz separately gave $2.5 million to a super PAC supporting Kamala Harris. Andreessen was subsequently appointed by the Federal Reserve in July to co-lead an AI task force examining the technology’s effects on productivity and employment, alongside Stanford economist Charles I. Jones and Microsoft executive Asha Sharma.
On crypto policy, a July review found that a16z contributed $24 million to the Fairshake political action committee during the second half of 2025, part of broader crypto industry spending that left Fairshake and its affiliates with about $193 million on hand in January.
People familiar with the DOJ investigation told Bloomberg that regulators have not reached a final decision on how to proceed. The inquiry could still close without any action against the firm. If the department does move, the most likely path, based on prior enforcement, would be a request for a director exit rather than litigation over the firm-level interpretation of the Clayton Act.
