Rio Tinto and Prysmian to Supply ELYSIS Low-Carbon Aluminum Cables to Amazon Data Center in Ohio

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Recently, Prysmian announced a partnership with Rio Tinto to supply power cables made with ELYSIS aluminum to an Amazon data center near Columbus, Ohio, in the United States. The cables have been awarded the project installation contract and will be used in the data center's power supply system. This is the first publicly disclosed case of inert anode smelting aluminum being used in a data center project.

The aluminum used in these cables is produced by Rio Tinto in Quebec, Canada, using low-carbon aluminum from its hydro-powered Alma aluminum smelter as well as aluminum produced with ELYSIS inert anode technology. ELYSIS replaces traditional carbon anodes with inert anodes, producing no direct greenhouse gas emissions during aluminum smelting, with oxygen as a byproduct. By the end of 2025, Rio Tinto had started up the first 450 kA commercial-scale inert anode electrolysis cell at the Alma smelter.

The aluminum will be processed into power cables at Prysmian's facility in Sedalia, Missouri, USA, with Wesco responsible for distribution and delivery of the related products, which will ultimately be transported to the Amazon data center project site in Ohio. This collaboration forms a complete supply chain from low-carbon aluminum smelting, aluminum rod material, and cable manufacturing to project delivery.

Rio Tinto and Prysmian had previously established a long-term partnership in low-carbon aluminum. The two parties signed a five-year supply agreement in 2023 and completed an industrial trial of low-carbon aluminum cables for the data center market in March 2026. During the trial phase, Rio Tinto blended low-carbon aluminum from the Alma smelter with aluminum produced using ELYSIS technology to make aluminum rods, which Prysmian then used for cable manufacturing validation. The Amazon project advances the previous industrial trial to actual installation in a specific data center project.

Prysmian disclosed that data centers have become an important growth market for cable demand in North America. According to CRU data, data centers accounted for approximately 7% of total North American cable demand in 2025, and related cable demand is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 17% from 2026 to 2030. In cable material composition, the share of aluminum is expected to increase from 23% in 2025 to 28% in 2035.