Thieves are pulling off huge heists of dear AI gear – utilizing subtle digital ways and cinematic exploits to abscond with tens of millions of {dollars} price of freight headed to knowledge middle development websites.

Crooks have made off with more than $100 million in knowledge middle gear since June – utilizing hacked accounts, phony driver’s licenses and spoofed GPS coordinates to pull off the heists, according to an NBC News report.

The loot consists of costly semiconductor chips, fiber optic cables, servers, copper wire and even bitcoin mining machines.

Thieves have been robbing AI {hardware} – including dear semiconductor chips – as it makes its means to knowledge facilities. Getty Images

The burgeoning illicit exercise comes as corporations pour billions of {dollars} into efforts to shortly erect knowledge facilities that can energy AI. Since 2025, almost 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 agency Verisk CargoNet, instructed 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 web sites, utilizing their entry to put up pretend hundreds to entice reliable trucking corporations, according to the report. Once shippers reply, the thieves ship malicious hyperlinks that set up software program that permits them to management corporations’ accounts and bid on precise shipments.

The criminals then either recruit unsuspecting truckers or use pretend driver’s licenses to get accomplices that are in on the sham employed to transport the items. The cargo is ultimately handed off to a driver working with the thieves, who can resell the gear, according to the report. In some instances, the thieves have manipulated monitoring coordinates to throw monitoring programs off their path.

Two shipments stolen in Illinois, for occasion, contained an estimated $300,000 in copper wire spools and roughly $1 million in custom-made modular energy gear for knowledge facilities, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.

Criminals are attacking the trucking provide chain to pull of their heists of AI {hardware} in transport to AI knowledge facilities. Getty Images

A still picture of stolen copper wire recovered at a truck yard in Cook County, Illinois, in June. Cook County Sheriff’s Office

Some of the largest hauls stay lacking — and thieves have even used Hollywood motion movie-like ways to pull off the jobs. 

In one case, a trailer carrying several hundred kilos of laptop server gear price $13 million was headed to Fayetteville, Georgia, where one of the nation’s largest knowledge middle developments is underway.

An unmarked sedan plowed into two off-duty cops that had been employed to escort the cargo, forcing them to cease while the thieves made off with the cargo. 

“The accident was not an accident,” Gerardo Pachuca, a non-public investigator and former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy investigating cargo theft, instructed NBC News. “The bad guys wanted that load, so they intentionally took out the escorts.”

Criminals ripping off vans carrying AI {hardware} have recruited unsuspecting truckers or used pretend driver’s licenses to get accomplices employed to transport the items. Carolyn Franks – inventory.adobe.com

In another incident, an SUV bashed into a safety car as it escorted a California-to-Texas cargo carrying server rack parts estimated to be price $10 million – permitting the trailer to velocity away, per the report.

Investigators believe the monitoring coordinates had been spoofed on that cargo, inhibiting their means to discover it.

Some stolen shipments have included a vary of items, indicating not just AI corporations are getting hit. In one Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department case, investigators recovered knowledge middle cooling gear alongside nicotine pouches, televisions, sneakers, printers, audio system and skincare merchandise.

Thieves have been focusing on costly AI gear like servers amid the AI growth. Steve Cho Kyewoong/Shutterstock

The attacks reveal how thieves in the AI growth period are shifting beyond easy opportunistic cargo thefts, consultants instructed NBC News. Criminals are infiltrating electronic mail accounts to spot profitable hundreds, rerouting shipments, disrupting GPS monitoring and are even utilizing AI to make pretend driver’s licenses.

“That’s how most of it is being done,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Pantoja instructed NBC News.

With the stolen items in hand, criminals are utilizing a chop-shop technique to unload the loot – dismantling shipments and promoting particular person parts through grey markets to tech corporations keen to scoop up AI gear on the low cost. Investigators say some stolen items are even making their means abroad – notably to China – where entry to prime US tech may be restricted.

Lawmakers are contemplating how to clamp down on abroad theft rings and states have assembled specialised job forces to observe down stolen shipments. 

“The only way this works is if the drivers are not properly vetted,” Scott Cornell, chair of TAPA Americas, a nonprofit targeted on provide chain safety, instructed NBC News.