Andreessen Horowitz probed by US DOJ over board conflicts

The US Department of Justice is investigating Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture capital powerhouse better known as a16z, over potential conflicts of interest tied to its board seats at multiple companies. The probe centers on whether shared directorships across competing firms amount to the kind of interlocking arrangements that antitrust law was designed to prevent. a16z raised over $15 billion in its largest-ever funding round announced in January 2026, pushing its total assets under management above $90 billion. The interlocking directorate problem The legal concept at the heart of this probe is older than Silicon Valley itself. Section 8 of the Clayton Antitrust Act, passed in 1914, prohibits a single person from serving on the boards of two competing companies. The logic is straightforward: if the same person sits in both boardrooms, the two companies are less likely to compete aggressively against each other. Venture capital firms have long existed in a gray area around this rule. A firm like a16z doesn’t just write checks. It takes board seats, installs partners as directors, and actively shapes strategy at its portfolio companies. When those portfolio companie...