Prysmian, Rio Tinto partner to bring low-carbon aluminum to Amazon data center

Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian has announced a partnership with mining giant Rio Tinto to provide low-carbon aluminum cables for an Amazon data center located in Ohio. The cables will be manufactured using a groundbreaking process called ELYSIS inert-anode technology, which allows for the production of aluminum without emitting direct greenhouse gases.

This innovation eliminates the need for carbon-intensive traditional smelting methods, instead producing pure oxygen as a byproduct. Prysmian highlights this collaboration as the first instance of inert-anode-smelted aluminum being utilized in a data center infrastructure. By implementing this technology at its Sedalia, Missouri facility, Prysmian aims to demonstrate how reducing the carbon footprint of data centers can be achieved at the source, during raw material production.

This partnership builds upon an existing collaboration between Prysmian and Rio Tinto, which was unveiled in March 2026. Joern Tinnemeyer, Vice President of Data Center Engineering at Amazon Web Services (AWS), emphasized the significance of this initiative in alignment with AWS's ambitious goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2040.