A high-tech giant Japanese firm hopes to join in cryptocurrency mining at the former Alcoa Rock-dale Operations smelter.
County Judge Steve Young said Tuesday GMO Registry wants to sign a lease with Alcoa for the remaining two potlines at the smelter and plans to employ 65 persons.
GMO is one of the largest Internet companies in Japan. Whinstone, a professional crypto mining colocation company, working with GMO, is also involved in the project.
(A colocation is a data center facility in which a business can rent space for servers and other computing hardware.)
Representatives of GMO and Whinstone have been in Rockdale.
Young said the deal with Alcoa has not yet been finalized but he is optimistic the new business, which will include a data center, will soon be alongside Bitmain at the former Alcoa smelter.
“I’m excited about this,” Young told The Reporter. “We are glad to welcome another new business to Milam County.
TIMING—The announcement was timely. Bitmain is scheduled to begin its Bitcoin mining operations as soon as Saturday. See separate story this page.
And a Wired magazine article was posted last week, presenting a less-than-positive view of the cryptocurrency situation in the community, stating Rockdale “bet” and “lost” on Bitmain. Editorial, page 4A.
Adding GMO’s proposed 65 jobs to Bitmain’s eventual 50 would mean 115 workers in the former potlines, six potlines for Bitmain and two for GMO.
‘TIP’—GMO Chief Executive Officer Hiru Tsukahara and Whinstone’s Aroosh Thillainathan and C. Everett Harris visited Rockdale Monday.
Harris runs a GMO Facility in Metairie, Louisiana. “They plan to move that facility from Metairie to Rockdale,” Young said.
It was Harris who received a tip about Rock-dale from “a friend of a friend,” according to Young.
“They’d been wanting to move from Metairie and that friend-of-friend knew this and was aware of the power situation at Alcoa,” Young said.
(Already existing power substations at the site are attractive to companies seeking to pull electricity from the power grid.)
MDD—Young said Harris sent representatives to Rockdale. The GMO “scouts” went to the July 8 Rockdale City Council meeting.
After the meeting they conferred with Rockdale City Manager Chris Whittaker, who sent them to Kara Clore, executive director of the Rockdale Municipal Development District.
“She took them out and showed them the site,” Young said.
Young said, in addition to cryptocurrency mining, GMO envisions other capabilities in the future.
Young said GMO plans to install 100,000 antminer mining machines.
“Most of their employees will be to keep the machines running, 24/7,” Young said. “If they stop you lose data and that costs money. You also have to keep them cool.”
DEAL—Of course the entire project hinges on GMO making a deal with Alcoa.
“This company is a major player and I believe it’s going to happen,” Young said. “They are extremely pleased with this location and want to come here.”
He said the company employs 6,000 workers in 70 locations.
Young said GMO is “ready to move” as soon as the pact with Alcoa can be finalized.
“They could be up and running in as little as six weeks,” he said.
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