Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-02-10/trump-s-ai-policy-shaped-by-vc-tech-giant-andreessen-horowitz

One of Silicon Valley’s most storied venture capital firms has emerged as a hidden hand steering artificial intelligence policy in Washington, as President Donald Trump embraces the industry’s relentless push into the emerging technology.

Andreessen Horowitz is now regularly the first outside call that top White House officials and senior Republican congressional aides make when considering moves that could affect tech companies’ AI plans, according to current and former White House and congressional aides.

Their sounding board is the firm’s chief lobbyist in the nation’s capital, Collin McCune. The firm, colloquially known by the shorthand a16z for the 16 letters between the A and Z in its name, arguably has veto power over any AI-related proposals, according to one former White House official.

“They are an absolute lobbying juggernaut and probably the most powerful single company that I’ve seen in recent years,” said Doug Calidas, top lobbyist with Americans for Responsible Innovation, a group that has opposed a16z’s push to curtail state AI laws.

The firm’s ascent in Washington has been fueled by massive influence spending, co-founder Marc Andreessen’s close ties to Trump, and a network of former firm partners working in key administration positions. It’s also benefited from savvy casting of its portfolio of insurgent startups as exemplars of the kind of free-market innovation celebrated by Republican Washington’s reigning conservative ideology.

Andreessen Horowitz’s bold, maximalist approach and deregulatory zeal have buttressed the administration’s view that most government-imposed guardrails on AI endanger US competitiveness in a fast-developing technology that has helped power the country’s recent economic growth. It has been a key driver of the Trump White House’s moves to thwart state governments’ efforts to regulate AI.

https://archive.is/53yLF