DOJ Probes Andreessen Horowitz for Year on AI Board Ties in First Push Against VC Firms

The Justice Department is reviewing whether investment partners at Andreessen Horowitz improperly occupy seats on the boards of rival AI ventures. This civil antitrust probe examines potential violations of Section 8 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits interlocking directorates between competing corporations above specific size thresholds to prevent coordination and information sharing.

The investigation has lasted nearly a year and marks a transition in agency enforcement, which has historically targeted private equity firms over similar board structures rather than venture capital. The DOJ is currently analyzing whether portfolio companies such as Databricks and Fivetran qualify as competitors given their overlap in enterprise data handling for AI.