From smelters to servers: Alcoa to cash in on crypto’s thirst for energy

The largest aluminum producer in the U.S., Alcoa, is close to selling its idle Massena East smelter in upstate New York to bitcoin firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), as it offloads dormant assets and taps demand for energy-ready industrial sites.

The company’s chief executive officer, Bill Oplinger, said the company is in advanced talks and expects the deal to close “in the middle part of this year,” Bloomberg reports.

The site, located along the St. Lawrence River, has sat idle since 2014 when Alcoa shut it down due to high operating costs and global competition.

The appeal lies in the site’s power, not the metal itself. Aluminum smelters are built to run around the clock, drawing large amounts of electricity through dedicated substations and transmission lines. When they close, that infrastructure remains.

For bitcoin miners and data center developers, this can cut years off the time required to secure grid access.

Massena East also has access to hydropower from the New York Power Authority, a draw for firms seeking low-cost and carbon-free energy.

The deal reflects a broader shift. Earlier this year, Century Aluminum sold a Kentucky smelter to TeraWulf (WULF), which plans to build a digital infrastructure campus supporting high-performance computing and AI.