--- title: "Thieves Are Making a Fortune Heisting AI Data Center Equipment" description: "Experts estimate over $100 million worth of AI data center components have been heisted since June of 2026 alone." date: "2026-10-26" modified: "2026-10-26" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-data-center-heist-thieves-equipment" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Computing" - "Robots and Machines" --- # Thieves Are Making a Fortune Heisting AI Data Center Equipment ![Distribution, delivery van and cardboard boxes for transport.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* As tech billionaires make bank off an AI trade that now threatens [retirement accounts and university endowments](), a criminal element is rising to take advantage of the crumbs that fall off the table. According to new reporting [by *NBC*](), truckfuls of equipment bound for data center construction sites are disappearing at a breakneck pace, representing tens of millions of dollars in losses for developers. In one case, a trailer hauling server equipment bound for a hyperscale data center campus in Fayetteville, Georgia disappeared, after the unmarked police car escorting it was rammed by another driver. The trailer was found in a lot a few days later, with pallets containing $13 million worth of equipment nowhere to be found. Another truckload bound for Texas went missing in a similar fashion, with a $10 million server rack vanishing after the escort vehicle was rammed and its GPS tracker manipulated by an unknown actor. "The accident was not an accident," private cargo theft investigator Gerardo Pachuca told *NBC*. "The bad guys wanted that load, so they intentionally took out the escorts." As various tech industry leaders and investigators told the publication, thefts of AI data center equipment in transit has resulted in over $100 million in losses since June of 2026 alone. Since last year, *NBC* identified some two dozen cargo thefts of components across the US, a number that's expected to grow as the [data center boom]() continues. Keith Lewis, head of operations at risk-management firm Verisk CargoNet told *NBC* that it's "like stealing pure gold bars." "We've seen some of these thefts go up into 30-plus million dollars for one particular shipment," Lewis continued. "It's so much easier to steal this than to rob a bank." **More on data centers:** *[Wolves Descend on Finnish Villages After Google Hacked Down 1,300 Acres of Habitat to Make Room for AI Data Centers]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [Police Arrest Man With Almost Zero Resemblance to Actual Perpetrator Because AI Told Them To]() - [OpenAI Warns Against Investing in Its Stock]() - [Teens Keep Being Hospitalized After Talking to AI Chatbots]() - [Users Were So Addicted to GPT-4o That They Immediately Cajoled OpenAI Into Bringing It Back After It Got Killed]() - [GPT-5 Is Turning Into a Disaster]() - [Beneath the AI Bubble, the Economy Looks Bleak]() - [GPT-5 Launch Demo Plagued With Catastrophically Dumb Errors]() - [Man Follows ChatGPT’s Advice and Poisons Himself]()