The big picture: Data center equipment has become a favorite target for cargo thieves as the AI boom has supercharged construction of these facilities. With shipments of GPUs and other gear repeatedly going missing, new reports suggest thieves are becoming increasingly ambitious and sophisticated as the heists become more lucrative.
According to the Bay Area News Group, police suspect that sophisticated thieves stole $11.4 million worth of Nvidia equipment that was supposed to ship from Oakland to Fort Worth, Texas. No arrests have been announced so far.
A vehicle containing six pallets was picked up in Oakland on August 29 as planned, but no one realized the shipment was missing until early September. Police attempted to trace it but lost track of the vehicle in San Bernardino County after it made several multi-hour stops.
The theft follows several over the past year involving Nvidia and other companies involved in the AI data center buildout. In 2025, investigations in Fremont and Union City alone involved more than $7.5 million in losses for Nvidia.
Meanwhile, in June 2026, authorities recovered $1.3 million worth of equipment in Chicago. GPS trackers helped police find the stolen goods, but some thieves have begun countering with GPS manipulation and other methods.
In some cases, thieves will slam into private escort vehicles that are following shipments. Police say such incidents are becoming more frequent.
In other instances, thieves might use common hacking and phishing methods to impersonate legitimate shipping companies. In response, shippers are investing more in monitoring services and even deploying Flock cameras to watch for suspicious people and license plates.
It seems that any truck displaying Nvidia's logo might be targeted, regardless of whether it carries anything valuable. In September, thieves stole Nvidia-branded trailers expecting to find GPUs or other equipment, but instead discovered 20,000 pounds of sand. It turned out that the other company whose logo was on the trucks, PlusAI, was using the sand to simulate loads for research and development.
Details from the $11.4 million heist indicate that shippers are trying to disguise their cargo in response to thefts, though the tactic failed in this instance. The thieves still stole the pallets even after a vehicle with a food company's logo picked them up.