The Justice Department is investigating venture firm Andreessen Horowitz over board seats two of its partners hold at competing companies, Databricks and Fivetran, under a rarely invoked 1914 antitrust law barring “interlocking directorates.”
The specifics
Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz sits on Databricks’ board, while partner Martin Casado sits on Fivetran’s board; both companies help businesses collect, organize, and analyze data, and are direct competitors, according to Bloomberg’s reporting. The investigation has reportedly been underway for close to a year already and represents a continuation of a Biden-era antitrust focus the current DOJ inherited rather than newly initiated.
What’s actually at stake
The Justice Department hasn’t made a final decision on how to proceed, and sources told Bloomberg the inquiry could close without any finding at all. Neither Andreessen Horowitz nor the DOJ has made a public statement confirming next steps as of this reporting.
Why it matters
Interlocking-directorate law exists precisely for situations like this, one investor’s partners sitting on the boards of two companies that compete directly, and its rare use historically is exactly what makes this case worth watching regardless of the outcome: a real enforcement action here would put every major VC firm’s board-seat portfolio under new scrutiny industry-wide, not just Andreessen Horowitz’s. That the investigation could also close with no finding is worth stating as plainly as the investigation itself; a probe opening is not the same as a violation confirmed, and treating the two as equivalent would misstate what’s actually known right now.
What to watch: whether the DOJ moves to a formal enforcement action or closes the inquiry without one.
