WhiteFiber Rebuilds Madison Textile Plant for AI
WhiteFiber is rebuilding a former textile plant in Madison, North Carolina, as an AI data center campus, CNN reported on August 10, as the project advances toward deployment. Data Center Dynamics reported that the 96-acre former Unifi property was acquired in June 2025 for a planned 99 MW facility, while WhiteFiber reported in May that Duke Energy had delivered 54 MW of gross utility power and construction and commissioning were advancing.
WhiteFiber is converting a former textile-manufacturing site in Madison, North Carolina, into an AI data center campus. CNN reported on August 10 that the plant had stood empty after 250 jobs disappeared and is now being rebuilt for AI workloads.
The project, known as NC-1, occupies a 96-acre industrial property at 805 Island Drive. Data Center Dynamics reported in June 2025 that WhiteFiber, then described as Bit Digital's wholly owned high-performance computing subsidiary, had acquired the approximately 1 million-square-foot former Unifi facility for $45 million in cash. The publication reported a planned 99 MW data center, with potential expansion to 200 MW.
Power and deployment status
In WhiteFiber's May 2026 first-quarter results release, CEO Sam Tabar reported that NC-1 was progressing through construction and commissioning. The company said Duke Energy had completed work to provide 54 MW of gross utility power to the site and that WhiteFiber was working toward bringing an initial 40 MW IT-load deployment into service under a long-term colocation agreement with Nscale.
Earlier reporting by Data Center Dynamics described a different delivery schedule: an initial 24 MW from Duke Energy was expected by September 2025, followed by another 75 MW in the short term. The later WhiteFiber disclosure provides a more current, though differently framed, power-status figure. It does not establish how much of the originally discussed 99 MW has been energized as usable IT capacity.
CNN's report frames existing industrial facilities as advantageous for AI infrastructure because buildings and power connections may already be in place. Tabar told Data Center Dynamics in 2025 that the site's location, size, and power profile made it "a rare asset."
Reusing industrial assets
The Unifi plant had operated for more than 30 years. Data Center Dynamics reported that Unifi closed the 946,585-square-foot Madison plant as part of a footprint reduction and laid off 91 workers. CNN separately cited 250 jobs vanishing from the site; the available reports do not clarify whether the two figures cover different periods, operations, or employment measures.
For AI infrastructure developers, the project illustrates a practical constraint in the current buildout: power availability and time to deployment can matter as much as land acquisition or building shell capacity. In comparable projects, repurposing an industrial property can shorten parts of site development, but utility interconnection, cooling design, backup generation, fiber connectivity, and the conversion of gross electrical supply into deployable IT load remain separate execution tasks.
WhiteFiber's May release also identified NC-1 as part of a broader infrastructure portfolio alongside MTL-3, a Montreal facility supporting Cerebras. The company reported that it had completed the purchase of MTL-3 after the quarter ended. Public reporting on NC-1 therefore documents a specific redevelopment project with an announced Nscale colocation arrangement, rather than a completed 99 MW AI deployment.
Key Points
- 1WhiteFiber is converting a former Madison textile facility into NC-1, tying industrial-site reuse to AI data center capacity.
- 2WhiteFiber reported 54 MW of gross utility power, while its initial Nscale deployment targets 40 MW of IT load.
- 3Comparable AI infrastructure projects show that existing buildings can accelerate development, but interconnection and cooling still determine usable capacity.
Scoring Rationale
The project is a notable example of converting legacy industrial real estate into power-intensive AI infrastructure, with a reported initial 40 MW IT deployment. It is relevant to practitioners and infrastructure teams tracking capacity, colocation supply, and the distinction between grid power and deployable IT load, but it is not a broad platform or model release.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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