Andreessen Horowitz has two partners sitting on the boards of companies that now compete with each other: Ben Horowitz at Databricks and Martin Casado at Fivetran. Nothing too scandalous on the surface, except the Department of Justice has reportedly been investigating the arrangement for almost a year, dusting off a 112-year-old antitrust law that's rarely used against VCs. 

Board conflicts aren't exactly new, and these companies weren't necessarily direct competitors when a16z first invested in them. But as portfolio companies expand into each other's markets, the DOJ's scrutiny raises a much bigger question for venture firms: How do you manage board seats when the boundaries between your portfolio companies keep moving? 
 
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the a16z probe, what it could mean for VCs, and more of the week’s headlines. 

Listen to the full episode to hear more about: 

• Why Stripe paid $7.5 billion for AI model router OpenRouter, and why the “singularity” isn't the real reason 

• What happens to the AI companies caught in the middle as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Nvidia pull further ahead 

• Why Rivian spinout Also just raised $150 million to make a bigger bet on autonomous vehicles 

• Uber’s newest delivery partnership with drone company Zipline, and what it means for the other autonomous startups betting their futures on Uber 

• Whether we've reached peak valuation for AI dictation apps after Wispr's $280 million raise at a $2 billion valuation 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

 

Chapters: 

 

00:00 Intro 

1:02 TechCrunch Disrupt and the Startup Battlefield 200 

3:17 The DOJ is investigating a16z over board seats 

14:47 Why Stripe just paid $7.5B for “the Stripe for AI” 

18:18 The mid-tier AI scramble: gateways, pivots, and acquihires 

23:17 Anthropic's revenue surges while OpenAI's losses deepen 

27:08 Also raises $150M and drops the “micro mobility” label 

32:30 Uber teams up with Zipline for drone delivery 

37:19 Wispr hits a $2B valuation 

38:26 Outro 

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