Pittsburgh-based Alcoa is inching closer to a deal to sell the first of 10 former industrial sites for potential use as data centers.
The aluminum manufacturer announced plans in February to offload closed or curtailed sites. The New Kensington Technical Center not among them, nor are any company properties in Pennsylvania.
Divestiture of up to $1 billion in assets is expected over the next five years.
Alcoa CFO Molly Beerman said during the JPMorgan Industrials Conference that one of the efforts is coming to fruition soon, according to investing.com.
She expects to announce the deal in coming months, with two more following.
Beerman said the company is pursuing several opportunities across the globe, but primarily in the U.S., Australia and Italy.
Locations the company identified to investors in a 2025 PowerPoint presentation included Washington, New York and several Southern states.
Beerman described the transition sites as former smelters, refineries and mine sites that the company is looking to monetize.
“The former smelter sites have very interesting energy infrastructure, so your data centers, your developers, lots of interest there in those sites,” she said. “These are interesting constructs, though, working with the data center developers. Unlike the previous practice (which) was to simply sell the land, we now realize we get a lot more value if we work with the developers.”
Efforts are progressing quickly because of increased demand for data center development, Beerman said.
“Now we’re looking at cash upfront, possibly a stream of payments, and then even cash on the end of the project because the developers want to turn them over to the hyperscalers,” she said. “Very interesting and complicated constructs, but we’re continuing to progress these efforts pretty rapidly, noting how much demand there is now from the data centers for the energy.”