US aluminum giant Alcoa is reportedly close to reaching a deal to tranship its long-closed Massena East smelter in upstate New York to bitcoin mining company New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG).
The company is in advanced talks and expects the transaction to be finalized “by the middle of this year,” says CEO Bill Oplinger he said Bloomberg on Friday. The plant is located on the St. River. Wawrzyńca has been inactive since 2014, after Alcoa closed it due to rising energy costs and global competition.
Built for 24/7 massive industrial operations, aluminum smelters are equipped with existing substations, transmission lines and high-capacity grid connections. This makes them attractive targets for Bitcoin miners and data center operators, who often spend years getting similar infrastructure approved from scratch.
Massena East also benefits from hydropower provided by the New York Power Authority, which is a key asset for energy-intensive computer companies seeking low-cost, low-carbon energy sources.
Related: The difficulty of mining Bitcoin is dwindling but is expected to escalate in the next correction
American mills are being reborn as cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence data centers
The potential sale follows a broader trend in the US, where decommissioned industrial facilities are being converted for digital infrastructure. Earlier this year, Century Aluminum sold its Hawesville, Kentucky, smelter to TeraWulf for $200 million with plans to transform it into a high-performance computing and artificial intelligence facility, rather than a classic industrial operate.
Meanwhile, NYDIG is increasing its stake in Bitcoin (BTC) mining infrastructure. The Stone Ridge-owned company already owns a stake in Coinmint, which operates mining equipment on the same campus under a long-term lease.
Last year, Crusoe Energy also agreed to sell its Bitcoin mining operations, including its digital flare mitigation operations, to NYDIG.
Related: HIVE plans to raise $75 million to finance the development of AI infrastructure
Bitcoin miners are switching to artificial intelligence
NYDIG’s renewed involvement in Bitcoin mining comes at a time when other miners are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence and cloud computing as shrinking mining margins force them to diversify their revenue streams.
Earlier this year, MARA Holdings acquired a 64% stake in French infrastructure company Exaion, giving it a position in AI services. Other miners, including Hive, Hut 8, TeraWulf and Iren, are also converting mining facilities into data centers, and some, like CoreWeave, have fully transitioned to AI-centric infrastructure.
Warehouse: Bitcoin Could Take 7 Years to Upgrade to a Post-Quantum Version – BIP-360 Contributor
