Both trailers have been reported stolen — the former taken from Pine Hill, Alabama, and the latter from Jacksonville, Florida. The original locations where these trailers were stolen show the nationwide scale of these theft rings, which had previously mostly targeted retail goods. The trailer that contained the copper wire spools also had its tags replaced with one from Indiana, according to Freight Pulse , probably in an attempt to obfuscate its source. It’s unclear how the data center equipment cargo was discovered, but the trailer carrying the copper wire was located through its GPS tracker.
Data center equipment, especially servers, seems like a lucrative target, especially given how expensive these items are. However, they are also specialized machines that are often only bought by institutions and large companies, so thieves would likely have a hard time selling them on the black market. They also likely have serial numbers, which would make it easier for buyers to check the status of the equipment with the manufacturer. Given the cost required to invest in these things, buyers would most probably demand official receipts and warranties — something that thieves and fences won’t be able to provide.
However, consumer electronics are easier targets, and we’ve seen theft rings hit consumer electronics before. For example, about $1.4 million worth of Switch 2 consoles en route to a GameStop branch in Texas were stolen from the back of a semi-truck last year. Gaming GPUs are popular targets for theft rings, too, with a shipment of EVGA 30-series GPUs stolen from the back of the truck in 2021 appearing in Vietnam a few months later, being sold by a major retailer at a discount. Another set of MSI RTX 3090s was also lifted directly from the company’s China factory in 2020, with the 220 GPUs estimated to amount to $336,500.
There are probably more incidents of theft that have been reported to the police but not publicly known. And although the value of the stolen goods could be staggering for the average person, companies and freighters often have insurance coverage, so they don’t have to worry about paying out of pocket for the entire loss.
Chinese Nvidia Cloud Partner procured 300 servers with banned AI GPUs worth $92 million
China black market Nvidia prices rocket in wake of smuggling crackdown and customs freeze
Taiwan raids 12 locations in its first formal crackdown on Nvidia AI chip smuggling
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News , or add us as a preferred source , to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/cargo-thieves-target-ai-data-center-supplies-in-usd1-3-million-heists-usd300-000-worth-of-copper-wire-and-usd1-million-worth-of-equipment-recovered-outside-chicago#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/subscription
- China’s Loongson launches homegrown 16-core server CPU built on LoongArch architecture — 40W chip with DDR4 ECC and 32 PCIe lanes targets cheap SMB file, databa
- At ISC, JUPITER Shows What Exascale Science Looks Like
- Incredible Ryzen 7 9800X3D prebuilt deal comes with an RX 9070 XT and 32GB of DDR5 for $750 off — get a prime iBuyPower 4K gaming rig for just $1,749
- RAM crisis provokes enthusiast to try Windows 11 on DDR1-era hardware — other key vintage components included the Core 2 Q6600 and ATI Radeon HD 4650 AGP
- Meta releases version two of its brain-computer interface that can turn thoughts into keypresses — non-invasive magnetoencephalography scanner can measure chang
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.