Thieves are pulling off massive heists of pricey AI equipment – using sophisticated digital tactics and cinematic exploits to abscond with millions of dollars worth of freight headed to data center construction sites.
Crooks have made off with more than $100 million in data center gear since June – using hacked accounts, phony driver’s licenses and spoofed GPS coordinates to pull off the heists, according to an NBC News report.
The loot includes expensive semiconductor chips, fiber optic cables, servers, copper wire and even bitcoin mining machines.
The burgeoning illicit activity comes as companies pour billions of dollars into efforts to quickly erect data centers that can power AI. Since 2025, nearly two dozen cargo thefts have been reported in states including California, Texas and Utah.
“It’s like stealing pure gold bars,” Keith Lewis, head of operations at cargo theft risk-assessment firm Verisk CargoNet, told NBC News. “It’s so much easier to steal this than to rob a bank.”
Crooks are hacking into freight brokers’ accounts on shipment-listing websites, using their access to post fake loads to attract legitimate trucking companies, according to the report. Once shippers respond, the thieves send malicious links that install software that allows them to control companies’ accounts and bid on actual shipments.
The criminals then either recruit unsuspecting truckers or use fake driver’s licenses to get accomplices that are in on the sham hired to transport the goods. The cargo is eventually handed off to a driver working with the thieves, who can resell the equipment, according to the report. In some cases, the thieves have manipulated tracking coordinates to throw monitoring systems off their trail.
Two shipments stolen in Illinois, for instance, contained an estimated $300,000 in copper wire spools and roughly $1 million in custom-made modular power equipment for data centers, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
Some of the biggest hauls remain missing — and thieves have even used Hollywood action movie-like tactics to pull off the jobs.
In one case, a trailer carrying several hundred pounds of computer server equipment worth $13 million was headed to Fayetteville, Georgia, where one of the country’s largest data center developments is underway.
An unmarked sedan plowed into two off-duty cops that had been hired to escort the shipment, forcing them to stop while the thieves made off with the cargo.
“The accident was not an accident,” Gerardo Pachuca, a private investigator and former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy investigating cargo theft, told NBC News. “The bad guys wanted that load, so they intentionally took out the escorts.”
In another incident, an SUV bashed into a security vehicle as it escorted a California-to-Texas shipment carrying server rack components estimated to be worth $10 million – allowing the trailer to speed away, per the report.
Investigators believe the tracking coordinates had been spoofed on that shipment, inhibiting their ability to find it.
Some stolen shipments have included a range of goods, indicating not just AI companies are getting hit. In one Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department case, investigators recovered data center cooling equipment alongside nicotine pouches, televisions, shoes, printers, speakers and skin care products.
The attacks demonstrate how thieves in the AI boom era are moving beyond simple opportunistic cargo thefts, experts told NBC News. Criminals are infiltrating email accounts to spot lucrative loads, rerouting shipments, disrupting GPS tracking and are even using AI to make fake driver’s licenses.
“That’s how most of it is being done,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Pantoja told NBC News.
With the stolen goods in hand, criminals are using a chop-shop strategy to unload the loot – dismantling shipments and selling individual components through gray markets to tech companies eager to scoop up AI gear on the cheap. Investigators say some stolen goods are even making their way overseas – particularly to China – where access to top US tech may be restricted.
Lawmakers are considering how to clamp down on overseas theft rings and states have assembled specialized task forces to track down stolen shipments.
“The only way this works is if the drivers are not properly vetted,” Scott Cornell, chair of TAPA Americas, a nonprofit focused on supply chain security, told NBC News.