A former aluminum processing site in Kentucky is set to be repurposed into a data center.

Century Aluminum Company has sold its site in Hawesville, Kentucky, to Raylan Data Holdings, an affiliate of US data center developer TeraWulf.

The site, which spans 750 acres in Hawesville, was acquired for a reported $200 million. Century will retain a non-controlling minority equity stake in the project of approximately 6.8 percent.

“We are very pleased to see the Hawesville site transition to productive use that will benefit Hawesville and the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky,” said Jesse Gary, Century’s president and CEO. “Our agreement allows us to remain connected to the project and supportive of the community as the site is redeveloped.”

Following the sale, TeraWulf intends to develop a data center campus at the site that is expected to support high-performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads.

Details on the data center's size and capacity were not disclosed. However, TeraWulf has said that the site includes “more than 250 buildable acres for compute capacity and offers immediate access to robust power infrastructure, including multiple high-voltage transmission lines, an on-site energized substation, and a direct connection to the regional transmission network.”

The site has approximately 480MW of existing power capacity, with the potential to expand further over time. The development of the data center is expected to occur in phases, which TeraWulf has said will allow it to scale the facility efficiently alongside customer demand.

TeraWulf targets Maryland

Alongside the Kentucky acquisition, TeraWulf also announced the acquisition of the 210MW Morgantown Generating Station in Newburg, Maryland, a grid-connected power generation facility, which has the potential to scale to 1GW.

According to TeraWulf, the acquisition includes the electrical infrastructure and associated real property. The company said it plans to expand the plant to 500MW in the initial phase.

The closing of the Morgantown acquisition is subject to certain third-party consents and customary regulatory approvals, including from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“These acquisitions reflect our strategy of reinvesting in existing energy infrastructure to support grid reliability, long-term economic activity, and responsible growth,” said Paul Prager, chairman and CEO of TeraWulf.

“Hawesville provides immediate access to scalable power, while Morgantown allows us to expand existing generation to meet growing load demand in a way that is net-positive for the grid. Across both sites, we have the unique ability to serve end users while also delivering critically needed surplus electricity.”

Following the acquisitions, TeraWulf has an infrastructure portfolio with a combined capacity of 2.8GW across five sites.

The company recently announced a joint venture with AI cloud firm Fluidstack, backed by Google, to develop a data center campus in Texas.