Morning Scan

Microsoft's CEO is warning that AI models should be treated as compromised while Washington bars the company from sponsoring foreign workers. Starbucks is reportedly weighing a bid for Chipotle, SpaceX is buying spectrum to compete with carriers, and a crypto-hardware supply chain has been hit by tampering.

~$39B — The reported size of Starbucks' possible bid for Chipotle, a deal that would rank among the year's biggest consumer tie-ups. (Hypebeast)

Connected World

Microsoft barred from sponsoring foreign workers for US residency

The administration has temporarily frozen green-card sponsorship for Microsoft, Adobe, and several other tech firms. (Ars Technica)

US justice department probes TV networks over Trump pool coverage (paywall)

ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, and NBC are being asked whether their joint refusal to cover the president after the White House pool ban amounted to an antitrust violation. (Financial Times)

Japan's cyber chief says the country is in "a state of emergency in cyber space" (paywall)

More than 20 major Japanese companies have reported attacks in recent weeks. (Financial Times)

San Francisco Is Still Pushing to Turn Offices Into Homes (paywall)

No office-to-housing conversions have been completed so far, though the city says the pipeline is real. (NYT)

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Starbucks Reportedly Wants to Buy Chipotle in a Nearly $39 Billion USD Deal

Advisers are reportedly working on a proposal, so the bid remains a rumor. (Hypebeast)

Starlink spectrum deal boosts Musk plan to beat AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon

SpaceX is buying nationwide low-band spectrum for a terrestrial mobile network, moving from complementing carriers to competing with them. (Ars Technica)

General Medicine raises $120M Series B led by a16z

The PillPack founders are back with an online storefront for medical care, backed by Eli Lilly and Mercy Health. (Fierce Healthcare)

Multiply Labs raises $75M Series B to automate pharma manufacturing with robots

NantWorks leads the round for robotic systems that make drugs, a niche where keeping humans away from sterile processes is a selling point. (SiliconANGLE)

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Microsoft's Satya Nadella says AI models need an 'emergency brake'

His Saturday-morning post argues it's time to "assess the trust architecture" of AI, a notable position for an executive selling a lot of it. (TechCrunch)

Ledger says affected user's device contained hardware implant

The tampering appears to trace to a reseller, CryptoBilis, which has stopped selling all hardware wallet inventory while the investigation continues. (The Defiant)

Two characters open up a world of typosquatting opportunities in Chromium browsers

Researchers say a pair of characters can make lookalike URLs display as the real thing. Check the address bar twice. (The Register)

"Super Intelligence systems" are black boxes that shouldn't be trusted by companies, and strong deterministic systems are needed around their deployment. — *Satya Nadella, on X

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A $599 Robot Dog That Fits on Your Desk and Works Like LEGO Technic

Q8botOne puts its core electronics in a modular setup, so the pet never needs walking and can be rebuilt as a different pet. (Yanko Design)