Amazon is testing the viability of lower-carbon aluminum at a new data center facility near Columbus, Ohio, in a move that marks a significant attempt to integrate sustainable materials into the hidden backbone of modern digital infrastructure. By utilizing electrical cabling manufactured with aluminum produced via ELYSIS technology, the project represents the first known instance of inert-anode smelted aluminum being deployed in a data center setting.
The collaboration involves a multi-tiered supply chain: Rio Tinto provides the aluminum, Prysmian manufactures the specialized electrical cables at its Sedalia, Missouri, facility, and Wesco manages distribution. While the installation is limited in physical scope, it addresses a fundamental challenge for the hyperscale computing industry: how to account for and mitigate the “embodied carbon” associated with the construction and equipment of massive data centers.
For Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has pledged to reach net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040, the path to decarbonization is increasingly shifting away from operational energy toward Scope 3 emissions—those produced by the goods, materials, and services purchased throughout the supply chain. While data center operators have long focused on energy efficiency and renewable power for cooling and server operation, the carbon footprint embedded in the structural components and internal electrical systems has historically been more difficult to track and reduce.
Traditional aluminum smelting relies on carbon-based anodes, which release greenhouse gases during the smelting process. The ELYSIS technology, developed as a joint venture, replaces these anodes with inert ones, effectively eliminating direct emissions during the process and releasing oxygen as the primary byproduct. The aluminum used for the Ohio project was smelted in Quebec using hydroelectric power, significantly lowering the overall carbon profile of the finished product.
However, the transition from a sustainability pilot to a standard procurement specification is fraught with logistical and economic hurdles. Data center construction is currently booming due to the surging demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. This rapid growth has strained supply chains for critical infrastructure components such as switchgear, transformers, and electrical cabling. Developers face the constant pressure of meeting aggressive project timelines, meaning that any new material—even one with a better environmental profile—must prove it can perform to specification, arrive on schedule, and compete commercially with conventional, carbon-intensive alternatives.
The Ohio project serves as a practical stress test for this coordination. It requires alignment across multiple stakeholders, each with their own set of requirements regarding cost, technical performance, and logistics. Currently, the companies involved have not disclosed the specific volume of ELYSIS aluminum used, nor have they confirmed if the material carries a price premium or provided a detailed lifecycle assessment compared to conventional aluminum.
Industry analysts suggest that the success of such initiatives will be determined by whether these materials can move beyond singular, high-profile deployments into routine usage. For developers to adopt these materials at scale, they require transparent, consistent carbon data that can be weighed alongside traditional metrics like lead times and unit costs.
For partners like Prysmian, the project aligns with broader corporate sustainability goals—the company has set a target for sustainability-linked solutions to account for 55% of its revenue by 2028. For Amazon, the project is a necessary experiment in verifying whether the supply chain can support its long-term climate commitments. Ultimately, if producers can supply lower-carbon aluminum in sufficient, reliable volumes, embodied carbon could shift from a peripheral environmental consideration to a standard requirement in the competitive world of data center procurement.
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