The Daily Brief: Starbase AI Data Center Gas Plant Heads to December Hearing

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The Daily Brief for 13 November 2026 leads with a proposed AI data center in Starbase, Texas, a project of about $24 billion that pairs a gas-fired power plant with a supercomputing campus and faces a public hearing in December. The edition also covers Meta's low-carbon materials deals, a Naver contract, and stories on robotics, software, automotive and infrastructure funding.

From our newsroom

Meta Signs Low-Carbon Materials Deals for Its Data Centers

Meta has signed long-term purchase commitments for low-carbon cement, steel, electric freight and recycled plastics, as covered in our earlier report, tied to the materials used in its data center construction. The deals give suppliers a steady income they can use to fund new plants, and Meta has not disclosed the total contract value. Priority access to Sublime Cement supports that supplier's first commercial-scale facility, while a second cement deal with Fortera backs a plant in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, linked to environmental attribute certificates for about 200,000 tons of output. The sources do not show whether these arrangements will lower material costs.

Also in the news

AI Business

Naver Signs 2 Trillion Won Compute Contract for Its AI Factory

Naver has signed a 2 trillion won computing contract, about US$1.5 billion, for its Naver AI Factory with an unnamed US-based AI inference company, its first major customer, according to the original report on the deal. The contract covers about 20 MW, with deliveries beginning in 2027. Naver plans to bring 55 MW into operation in the first half of 2027 and reach 200 MW by 2028, with the GAK Sejong data center as the main hub. Naver reportedly said contracted capacity already exceeds the 2028 goal and that more than ten other companies are negotiating follow-up deals, which would move the bottleneck toward construction, power delivery and cooling. Reports differ on whether the term is four or five years, so total revenue is not yet settled.

Nscale's Amended IPO Filing Shows Growth Ahead of Funding

Nscale's amended IPO filing, submitted on 12 November, shows a net loss of $1.69 billion for the nine months through 30 September on revenue of $307.5 million, as set out in the original analysis. Active GPUs rose to roughly 50,000 from about 25,000, and active sites grew from five to seven, including a 200 MW leased facility in the United States. The same filing states that no binding financing exists yet for the Anthropic agreements worth up to $44.6 billion, so the build-out is outpacing the funding that would pay for it.

Robotics

Figure Recruits Night Coordinators for Its Humanoid Robots at $40 to $45 an Hour

Figure AI is recruiting a night shift coordinator in Santa Clara for its humanoid robots, per the original job posting report. The contract-to-hire role pays $40 to $45 an hour for shifts from 10:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. and requires at least three years of supervisory experience. The coordinator decides whether a faulted robot can keep working, must be adjusted or must stop, which shows that paid human supervision is a recurring cost in Figure's deployments.

GXO Signs Letter of Intent for Up to 1,000 Apptronik Apollo Robots

GXO has signed a letter of intent with Apptronik for up to 1,000 Apollo humanoid robots over four years, as described in the original report. The first North American deployment is slated for late 2027 and depends on trial results and jointly agreed KPIs. Under the robot-as-a-service model, GXO would pay for robot capacity rather than buy each unit, moving capital cost into operating expense. The arrangement builds on a 2024 proof-of-concept at a Georgia distribution center and expanded in 2026 to warehouses in North Carolina and Tennessee.

Vibe Coding

Addy Osmani's agent-skills Repository Maps Six Stages of AI Coding Work

Addy Osmani's open-source agent-skills repository organizes AI coding work into six stages, Define, Plan, Build, Verify, Review and Ship, according to the original write-up. Each stage runs through a slash command, from /spec to /ship, and the repository lists nine commands and 25 skills in total. An optional /build auto mode plans and implements every task in one approved pass, though it halts when a failure occurs.

Sources Do Not Establish a Market for Repairing Vibe-Coded Sites

A review of the available material finds no named agency, freelancer or price for repairing founder-built sites built with AI tools. The main evidence is a forum comment proposing an "AI Remediation" service, which is an idea rather than proof of paying demand. No fault catalogue or repeat-client data was found.

Deep Pulse

Hyperscaler Capex Nears $725 Billion as GPU Rentals Sell Out

Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta are preparing a combined 2026 capital outlay of as much as $725 billion, according to the November analysis of the buildout. Microsoft's figure is about $170 billion after a cut from $175 billion, and Alphabet's guidance sits at $195 billion to $205 billion. Compute rental providers say they are sold out, while forecasts for data center spending are being trimmed, so the analysis separates booked, built and energised capacity before drawing conclusions about demand.

Starbase AI Data Center Gas Plant Heads to December Hearing

A public hearing notice for a proposed AI data center in the corporate limits of Starbase, Texas, entered the record on 9 November, as set out in the original report. The project is owned by SpaceX, carries an estimated initial cost of about $24 billion, and pairs behind-the-meter natural-gas generation with a compute campus on roughly 444 acres east of Brownsville. Generating power on site avoids waiting for a utility interconnection, but it concentrates emissions scrutiny on one location. Texas governor-elect Gina Hinojosa opposes approving new data centers until the state enacts stronger protections. The sources do not detail noise or water effects on nearby residents, which are the local costs this approval will need to address.

Cars

Toyota Recalls About 314,000 US Vehicles Over Takata Airbag Inflators

Toyota is replacing the front passenger airbag inflator in about 314,000 US vehicles, as stated in its recall notice, which was announced on 12 November. The Takata-made unit can rupture when heat and humidity degrade its propellant, and Toyota states that such a rupture may injure or kill occupants. Dealers will replace the inflator or the full airbag assembly at no charge. Owners can check coverage through Toyota.com/recall or the NHTSA recall search.

Schaeffler Plans 3,460 European Job Cuts and Five Plant Closures

Schaeffler intends to cut 3,460 jobs on balance across 16 European sites and close five facilities by 2028, according to the original report. About 2,660 of the affected roles are in Germany, where the company counts an earlier programme and 1,800 partial-retirement agreements toward a reduction of about 18 percent of the core workforce. The cuts target excess capacity in the combustion-engine division and are expected to save about EUR 300 million a year.

Ottawa Issues Default Notice Over Stellantis Brampton Plant Sale

Ottawa has given Stellantis 30 days to correct alleged violations linked to its planned sale of the shuttered Brampton plant to Roshel, an armoured vehicle maker, as reported in the original article. Stellantis has offered to repay $24 million in federal subsidies, while industry minister Mélanie Joly argues the carmaker owes hundreds of millions of dollars. The two figures are not measured on the same basis, and neither side has published its calculation.

Sources

Toyota Recalls 314,000 US Cars Over Takata Airbag Inflator

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Researched and cross-referenced against primary sources by the Bytevyte editorial team. This article was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the Bytevyte editorial team.