The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating whether Andreessen Horowitz has created a potential antitrust problem through its executives' roles at two companies operating in the same AI-related market.

Summary:

• The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly examining Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) over possible antitrust concerns

• The inquiry centers on overlapping leadership roles at Databricks and Fivetran

• The investigation reportedly began during the review of Fivetran’s merger with dbt Labs

According to Bloomberg, the inquiry has been underway for roughly a year. It surfaced during the DOJ's examination of the Fivetran–dbt Labs merger, which was completed in June 2026 after regulatory review.

At the center of the matter are a16z co-founders Ben Horowitz and Martin Casado. Horowitz serves on the board of Databricks, while Casado has held a leadership role at Fivetran. Both companies have received investment from the venture capital firm.

The overlap has attracted scrutiny because the businesses have moved closer to one another. Fivetran specializes in moving and organizing data, while Databricks provides infrastructure for storing and analyzing it. Databricks expanded into data ingestion in 2024 with Lakeflow Connect, bringing one of its products closer to Fivetran's core business.

The DOJ has previously challenged situations in which investment firms or their representatives hold positions at competing companies. The agency has also reached agreements requiring directors to step down when it considered overlapping board memberships problematic under U.S. antitrust law.

The latest inquiry does not mean that a16z or its executives have been found to have violated the law. Neither the DOJ nor Andreessen Horowitz had publicly commented on the reported investigation at the time of publication.

Related: Earlier, we reported that Meta’s AI model gained unauthorized access to the internet and exploited a vulnerability in another company’s system, adding to growing scrutiny of how major AI developers manage risks and oversight.