INDEX / DIRECTORY / STARBUCKS / DIGITAL

Starbucks DIGITAL

DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE AUDIT UPDATED 2026-09-08
Digital Score 0.00 /10 D Starbucks - Complicity Index 394
Digital 0.00

Evidence-only forensic audit. Scoring happens downstream - see the main dossier for the composite assessment.

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Enterprise Technology Stack & Vendor Relationships

Starbucks Corporation is the SEC registrant, incorporated in Washington, and its FY2025 reporting defines “Starbucks” as the corporation together with its subsidiaries; the reviewed corporate disclosures do not identify a parent company above Starbucks Corporation.1 Starbucks reports company-operated and licensed stores, alongside trademark licensing through grocery and foodservice channels under its Global Coffee Alliance with Nestlé.1

In March 2019, Starbucks announced a $100 million cornerstone investment in Valor Siren Ventures I L.P., a fund focused on food and retail technology, and stated that it could explore commercial relationships with portfolio companies.2 Starbucks’ 2019 Form 10-K recorded the Valor Siren Ventures I investment among other long-term obligations.3 The available Starbucks materials do not identify an Israeli-origin portfolio company, technology deployment, or continuing Starbucks commitment arising from that investment.2, 3

No public evidence identified of a direct Starbucks licensing, subscription, integration, or managed-service relationship with the reviewed Israeli-origin enterprise-technology vendors, including Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, NICE, Verint, Claroty, or Palo Alto Networks.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 No public evidence identified of a Starbucks systems integrator, outsourcing provider, or digital-transformation programme publicly documenting mandated or deployed Israeli-origin technology for Starbucks.1, 6, 2, 3

Starbucks’ current cybersecurity, POS, CRM, identity, analytics, call-centre, cloud, managed-service, and data-processing contracts are not generally disclosed in the reviewed materials, so vendor confirmation, procurement records, data-processing agreements, or subprocessor documentation would be required to verify specific products and data routes.1, 2, 3

Surveillance, Biometrics & Retail Technology

No public evidence identified of Starbucks’ direct procurement or deployment of Israeli-origin facial recognition, biometric identification, gait analysis, retail computer vision, predictive policing, sentiment monitoring, or workforce-surveillance products in the reviewed disclosures and vendor materials.1, 2, 3 No public evidence identified that such products reach Starbucks through a named managed-security provider, platform provider, systems integrator, franchisee, or reseller.1, 6, 2, 3

The reviewed material does not establish Starbucks’ current retail-technology suppliers or franchisee-level IT deployments, including any historical Israeli franchisee or reseller arrangements.1, 6 This evidence gap prevents a definitive finding on indirect or locally procured surveillance-related technology.1, 6

Cloud Infrastructure, Data Residency & Sovereign Cloud Participation

Israel’s Ministry of Finance stated in October 2022 that Google activated a local cloud zone under the government’s Nimbus cloud tender.7 That Nimbus announcement does not identify Starbucks as a tender supplier, cloud provider, or participant.7

No public evidence identified of Starbucks operating or leasing a data centre in Israel, participating in Project Nimbus, or providing data-sovereignty or resilience services to Israeli state or military bodies.1, 7 No public evidence identified of an Israel-based storage, routing, processing, R&D, or legal-access point for Starbucks customer, payment, location, or behavioural data.1, 7

The reviewed sources do not establish Starbucks’ current data-hosting locations, cloud subprocessors, cross-border routing, or Israeli-jurisdiction exposure.1, 7 Primary privacy disclosures, data-processing agreements, cloud-architecture records, and vendor documentation would be required to resolve those questions.1, 7

Defence, Intelligence & Security Sector Technology Relationships

No public evidence identified of Starbucks contracts, partnerships, or service agreements with the Israeli Ministry of Defence, Israel Defense Forces, intelligence agencies, police, or other Israeli security bodies.1, 7, 8, 9 No public evidence identified of Starbucks technology being documented as used by Israeli military, intelligence, law-enforcement, settlement, or occupied-territory bodies.8, 9, 10, 11

No public evidence identified of Starbucks developing, licensing, selling, or maintaining offensive cyber capabilities, exploit tools, digital weapons systems, or autonomous targeting systems.1, 7, 8, 9

Starbucks stated in October 2023 that neither the company nor former chairman, president, and CEO Howard Schultz had provided financial support to the Israeli government or Israeli Army, and that its Israel partnership was dissolved in 2003 for operational reasons.10 This is a company statement rather than independent verification of all possible corporate, technology, or personal relationships.10

Starbucks stated in December 2023 that it had never contributed to any government or military operation and reported Starbucks Foundation and licensee support for World Central Kitchen’s Gaza food-aid work.11 This statement does not independently establish the full scope of Starbucks’ technology supply chain or data-processing arrangements.11

A July 2024 Globes report, citing sources familiar with the matter, stated that Wiz had been awarded an Israeli Ministry of Finance cloud-security tender through distributor Accel Solutions Group and subsidiary Danet; it described eligibility for government cloud-protection projects and listed authorities and “security forces” among potential users.12 The report also stated that Accel’s announcement did not name Wiz, the government client, or the deal size.12 No tender award notice, contract, ministry confirmation, vendor statement, or implementation record was retrieved that independently verifies the reported award, identifies an Israeli defence, intelligence, police, or occupied-territory customer, or establishes deployment by a security body.12

The reported tender is therefore an unverified government-tender lead, not primary verification of a military, intelligence, or rights-affecting digital outcome, and it does not establish a Starbucks relationship with Wiz.1, 12 AP’s 2025 reporting on Israeli military use of technology supplied by Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and Amazon does not name Wiz or Starbucks and cannot be attributed to Schultz’s investment in Wiz.13, 14

AI, Algorithmic & Autonomous Systems

No public evidence identified of Starbucks providing AI/ML, computer-vision, or autonomous decision-support tools to Israeli state, military, or security bodies.1, 7, 8, 9 No public evidence identified that Starbucks models or platforms were trained on, or provided access to, Israeli or occupied-territory civilian, communications, or surveillance-derived datasets.1, 7, 8, 9

No public evidence identified of Starbucks providing autonomous target-generation, targeting, or tracking systems.1, 7, 8, 9 The reviewed sources do not disclose Starbucks’ current AI vendors, model providers, data-processing architecture, or possible downstream data access.1, 2, 3

Google characterizes Wiz as a cloud- and AI-security platform that connects to major cloud and code environments to help customers prevent and respond to cybersecurity incidents, and its acquisition materials describe general cloud-security products rather than a Schultz-linked contract, deployment, or end use by an Israeli state-security body.5, 15, 16, 17 No public evidence identified in the reviewed primary corporate disclosures, Wiz issuer announcement, Google acquisition materials, OHCHR database, A/HRC/59/23, and prior focused research of a qualifying Israeli military, intelligence, or rights-affecting digital outcome linked to Schultz’s personal investment in Wiz.1, 18, 19, 8, 9, 4, 5, 15, 16, 17

Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint

Starbucks’ FY2025 reporting identifies North America, International, and Channel Development operating segments, with the International segment spanning China, Japan, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.1 Starbucks reported operating in 89 markets, but the cited filing does not provide a country-level operating-location list.1

Starbucks’ significant-subsidiary exhibit lists entities organized in Nevada, China, the Cayman Islands, Washington, and the United Kingdom, and does not list an Israel-domiciled significant subsidiary.20 The exhibit expressly excludes subsidiaries that would not be significant in aggregate under SEC rules, so it is not a complete legal-entity register.20

In a March 2024 annual-meeting transcript, Starbucks’ then-CEO described Alshaya Group as Starbucks’ business partner operating across 13 Middle East and Africa markets.6 That transcript does not identify those markets or establish Starbucks operations in Israel or the occupied territories.6

Fortune, reporting a Bloomberg-sourced funding round in April 2021, identified Howard Schultz as an investor in Wiz and described Wiz as an Israeli cybersecurity startup.18 TIME’s 2024 profile identifies Schultz as Starbucks chairman emeritus and describes him as an early investor in Wiz.19 Starbucks’ 2023 board-transition announcement states that Schultz stepped down from its board and would focus with his wife on philanthropic and entrepreneurial investments.21 These sources support a personal investment by a former Starbucks executive, not Starbucks Corporation procurement of Wiz products, access to Starbucks data, or an ongoing ownership stake.18, 19, 21

Wiz’s 7 May 2024 issuer announcement states that it raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Thrive Capital.4 The announcement does not name Schultz or provide investor-by-investor allocations; it independently verifies the funding round but does not independently verify Schultz’s participation in that May 2024 round, investment amount, ownership percentage, or investment vehicle.4

A separate syndicated Wiz issuer release dated 7 May 2024 explicitly names Howard Schultz among existing investors participating in that funding round; this supplements the shorter Wiz blog announcement. It does not disclose his individual investment amount or ownership percentage.22

Google announced a definitive agreement to acquire Wiz for $32 billion in cash on 18 March 2025.5 Google announced completion on 11 March 2026, and Alphabet’s contemporaneous Form 10-Q reports a $29.5 billion completed purchase price after purchase-price adjustments, excluding post-combination compensation arrangements, with Wiz’s financial results included in Google Cloud.15, 16, 17 The acquisition establishes that Wiz became part of Google Cloud in March 2026, but it does not disclose Schultz’s investment amount, vehicle, current or post-closing holding, proceeds, voting rights, governance rights, or continuing affiliation.5, 15, 16, 17 No Starbucks procurement, data-access, technology-integration, or customer relationship follows from the personal-investment evidence.1, 18, 19, 21, 4, 5, 15, 16, 17

No public evidence identified of a Starbucks-operated Israeli R&D centre, engineering office, innovation lab, acquisition of an Israeli technology company, or patent or co-development agreement with an Israeli research institution.1, 20, 2, 3 No public evidence identified in the reviewed corporate records of an Israel-domiciled Starbucks subsidiary, Israeli branch, Israeli data centre, or operations in internationally recognized occupied territories.1, 20, 6 The significant-subsidiary exhibit cannot rule out non-significant entities, licensees, or historical arrangements.20

Brian Niccol has served as Starbucks chairman and chief executive officer since September 2024, according to the company’s 2026 proxy statement.23 The proxy identifies eleven director nominees and reports The Vanguard Group as beneficially owning 113,888,463 shares, or 10.0% of the class.23 Capital World Investors reported beneficial ownership of 104,838,568 Starbucks shares, or 9.2% of stated outstanding shares, as of March 31, 2026, and reported that the securities were held in the ordinary course rather than to influence control.24 A 30 April 2026 Schedule 13G filing identifies Vanguard Capital Management LLC as a Starbucks beneficial-owner filer, but the retrieved filing-index page did not yield its share or percentage figures.25 Apart from the documented Schultz investment in Wiz described above, the reviewed sources do not verify additional Israeli technology, surveillance, defence, settlement-organization, or family-office affiliations of directors, senior officers, Schultz, or institutional beneficial owners; those additional relationships are unverified rather than established as absent.23, 24, 18, 19, 25

Civil Society Scrutiny & Regulatory History

The supplied full-text review found no Starbucks mention in the June 2023 OHCHR database update concerning business enterprises involved in activities detailed in Human Rights Council resolution 31/36.8 The supplied review also found no Starbucks mention in the 2025 UN Special Rapporteur report From economy of occupation to economy of genocide.9 These are document-scoped absence findings and do not establish the absence of all settlement-related activity or references in all UN materials.8, 9

The supplied full-text review found no Starbucks mention in the BDS Movement’s November 2024 Corporate Priority Targets report.26 That result is limited to that document and does not determine all boycott activity concerning Starbucks.26

Associated Press reported that calls to boycott Starbucks followed its October 2023 trademark dispute with Workers United after a union social-media post expressing solidarity with Palestine.27 AP characterized Starbucks’ federal action as seeking to stop use of its name and a similar logo, making the reported dispute a branding and trademark matter rather than a technology, government-contract, or Israeli-state-services matter.27

No public evidence identified in the reviewed UN, NGO, news, and corporate-statement sources of a technology-specific boycott or divestment campaign concerning Starbucks’ provision of technology to Israel or the occupied territories.8, 9, 26, 10, 11, 27 No public evidence identified in those reviewed sources of an investigation, regulatory action, export-control action, sanctions-related proceeding, or legal action concerning such technology provision.8, 9, 10, 11, 27

Footnotes

  1. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/829224/000082922425000114/sbux-20250928.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23 ↩24 ↩25 ↩26

  2. https://investor.starbucks.com/news/financial-releases/news-details/2019/Starbucks-Commits-100-Million-as-Cornerstone-Investor-in-Valor-Siren-Ventures-I-LP-to-Focus-onNew-Retail-Innovation/default.aspx ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  3. https://investor.starbucks.com/files/doc_financials/2019/ar/2019-Annual-Report.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  4. https://www.wiz.io/blog/celebrating-our-1-billion-funding-round-and-12-billion-valuation ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-announcements/google-agreement-acquire-wiz/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. https://investor.starbucks.com/files/doc_events/2024/03/1/2024-Annual-Meeting-of-Shareholders-Transcript.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  7. https://www.gov.il/en/pages/_bpress_20102022 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  8. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session31/database-hrc3136/23-06-30-Update-israeli-settlement-opt-database-hrc3136.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  9. https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/59/23 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  10. https://about.starbucks.com/press/2023/facts-about-starbucks-in-the-middle-east/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  11. https://about.starbucks.com/press/2023/what-has-starbucks-said-about-the-conflict-in-israel-and-gaza/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  12. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-wiz-wins-huge-israeli-govt-tender-1001484945 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  13. https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-ai-technology-737bc17af7b03e98c29cec4e15d0f108 ↩

  14. https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-israel-military-gaza-hamas-artificial-intelligence-3f4bf8036e7e02f385b258bd353af1fd ↩

  15. https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/infrastructure-and-cloud/google-cloud/wiz-acquisition/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  16. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204426000048/goog-20260331.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  17. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204426000048/R17.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  18. https://fortune.com/2021/04/07/wiz-howard-schultz-investment-fundraising-cybersecurity-startups-starbucks-ceo/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  19. https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2024/7023459/assaf-rappaport/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  20. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/829224/000082922425000114/sbux-09282025xexhibit21.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  21. https://s203.q4cdn.com/326826266/files/doc_news/Starbucks-Announces-Transitions-to-Its-Board-of-Directors-2023.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  22. https://www.vcaonline.com/news/2024050718/wiz-announces-1-billion-funding-round-at-12-billion-valuation/ ↩

  23. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/829224/000121390026007780/ea0270973-01.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  24. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/829224/000142284926000101/xslSCHEDULE_13G_X02/primary_doc.xml ↩ ↩2

  25. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/829224/000210011926001124/0002100119-26-001124-index.htm ↩ ↩2

  26. https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  27. https://apnews.com/article/starbucks-workers-united-union-lawsuit-israel-palestinian-f212a994fef67f122854a4df7e5d13f5 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4