How cargo thieves are stealing millions of dollars in tech hardware

Energy drinks and sneakers give way to pricey AI chips and RAM modules as favorite targets.

March 9, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EDT Today at 5:00 a.m. EDT
7 min


Cargo thieves are targeting tractor-trailers filled with AI chips and other computer components, resulting in multimillion-dollar losses. (iStock)

By Todd C. Frankel

The cargo thief waited until the last worker left the warehouse in Reno, Nevada, before he pulled into the deserted parking lot a little after midnight last July. ... He seemed to know exactly what he wanted. He quickly backed up his truck cab to a nondescript white 53-foot trailer, jumped out, hooked up his rig and drove off, disappearing out of range of the security cameras. ... In 14 minutes, the thief made off with an estimated $9.5 million in Apple products and $6 million in AMD computer chips, according to a police report. ... A detective later found the trailer’s discarded GPS tracking device, wires dangling, in the dirt near Interstate 80. Two weeks later, they found the empty trailer about 280 miles away in California. The stolen goods remain missing.

Losses from cargo theft have surged nationwide, jumping 60 percent last year in the United States to a record $725 million, even as the number of reported incidents remained essentially flat at about 3,600 cases a year, according to theft prevention firm Verisk CargoNet. ... That’s due to a new twist on an old idea: There is plenty of money to be made from stealing goods in transit. But it’s no longer about just looting cartons of cigarettes or pallets of laundry detergent and energy drinks.

Thieves today are targeting the pricey computer parts driving the AI and tech booms, snatching high-speed RAM modules, advanced computer chips and server racks as they flow toward the data centers and related industries popping up across the country. The thieves are also using increasingly sophisticated means to pull off their heists. ... “It’s a push-pull thing — whatever is being pulled through the supply chain at high speed, that’s what the bad guys are stealing,” said Keith Lewis of CargoNet. “Right now, we’re seeing a chip shortage and the emergence of AI data centers.”

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In September, a man walked into a shipping company in Salt Lake City posing as a truck driver who was supposed to haul a trailer 13 hours to El Paso. ... Officials don’t know how he inserted himself into the supply chain. But the shipping company didn’t suspect a thing. The fake driver even agreed to his phone being tracked, a common request for high-value loads. His GPS trail went cold about an hour outside El Paso. ... The trailer was discovered days later in Irwindale, California, not far from the Port of Long Beach, one of the world’s busiest shipping ports. ... Gone was the trailer’s load of 40 AI server racks and 108,230 memory modules that are often used in AI data centers, according to an industry BOLO notice. ... The stolen cargo was valued at $31 million. ... “That’s a big one,” Lewis said. ... The Utah Attorney General’s Office is investigating.

By Todd C. Frankel
Todd C. Frankel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter on The Washington Post's Financial desk.follow on X@tcfrankel