US aluminum giant Alcoa is reportedly nearing a deal to sell its long-idle Massena East smelter in upstate New York to Bitcoin mining firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG). CEO Bill Oplinger told Bloomberg the transaction is expected to close in the middle of this year. The site, located along the St. Lawrence River, has been inactive since 2014.
Built for 24/7 heavy industrial operations, aluminum smelters come with pre-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 securing similar infrastructure approvals from scratch. Massena East also benefits from hydropower supplied by the New York Power Authority, a key draw for energy-intensive computing firms.
The potential sale comes amid a broader trend across the US, where retired industrial sites are being repurposed for digital infrastructure. Earlier this year, Century Aluminum sold its Hawesville smelter in Kentucky to TeraWulf for $200 million, with plans to convert it into a high-performance computing and AI facility.
NYDIG's renewed push into Bitcoin mining comes as other miners are increasingly pivoting toward AI and cloud computing as shrinking margins in mining push them to diversify revenue streams. Companies like Marathon Digital, Hive, Hut 8, TeraWulf, and Iren are also repurposing mining facilities into data centers.