Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has become the target of an antitrust investigation by the US Department of Justice because members of its leadership hold high positions at competing enterprises—Databricks and Fivetran. Bloomberg reports this, citing its sources.
According to the publication, the investigation has been ongoing for about a year. It began against the backdrop of a review of the deal between Fivetran and dbt labs.
Information about it appeared in October 2025. The merger was completed in June 2026, with the US Department of Justice ultimately approving it after thorough scrutiny.
The reason for the antitrust investigation was the fact that Ben Horowitz, co-founder of a16z, sits on the board of directors of Databricks, as also stated on his biography page. His partner, Martin Casado, in turn, is a member of the leadership team at Fivetran.
Both companies received financial backing from a16z. Specifically, the firm led a $44 million round for Fivetran in September 2019. Casado joined the latter's board at that same time.
Why is the Department of Justice Opposed to a16z Top Managers Being Involved in Running Two Different Companies?
Both Fivetran and Databricks operate in the AI field. The former is a provider of infrastructure for collecting and structuring data, while the latter provides storage for it and enables analysis. The companies are closely linked and collaborate.
For example, in 2026, Fivetran named Databricks its strategic partner of the year. However, if their activities were previously adjacent but not overlapping, the situation changed in 2024.
That year, Databricks launched Lakeflow Connect—its own service for quickly loading data from SQL Server, Salesforce, Workday, and other sources.
In this case, the US Department of Justice interprets the Clayton Antitrust Act more broadly than Section 8 stipulates. In the case against Oaktree Capital Management, the agency emphasized that a business structure could violate the provisions of the bill if its representatives hold seats on the boards of competitors.
The US Department of Justice also has several legal precedents with corresponding rulings to its credit. For example, the agency forced representatives of Thoma Bravo to leave the boards of technology companies due to similar overlaps.
At the time of writing, neither the agency nor a16z has commented on the situation.
Earlier, we reported that a16z launched a $2.2 billion fund for developing infrastructure in the AI field.
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