Thieves stole an Nvidia-branded truck filled with just 20,000 pounds of sand—and it points to Big Tech’s $150 million AI hardware theft headache

Cargo pirates, perhaps in search of precious AI loot, found a completely different kind of booty after stealing two trailers from an autonomous trucking company: sand, and lots of it.

The trucking company, PlusAI, confirmed two trailers were stolen last week from its Fremont, Calif., warehouse, including one with Nvidia branding on it. While PlusAI uses Nvidia chips for its self-driving technology, the trailers weren't carrying those chips, but rather, 40,000 pounds of sand.

The theft happened overnight: Workers discovered the trailers missing the next morning, and police recovered them later that day after a friend of PlusAI's vice president of legal happened to spot them parked outside a Newark office and sent a photo. Authorities told the company the thieves broke open the back of the vehicles, found nothing of value, and left them.

PlusAI uses sand to simulate the loads its trailers must carry to support research and development testing, as carrying the material closely mimics real freight conditions. Each truck held about 20,000 pounds of sand.

Lauren Kwan, vice president of marketing at PlusAI, told Fortune that since the company's 2016 founding, it has never had a tractor or trailer stolen: "This was a first." Nvidia declined Fortune 's request for comment.

While a first for PlusAI, cargo theft targeting AI companies has been on the rise. In June, investigators with the Cook County Sheriff's Office in Illinois recovered two trailers outside of Chicago, including one containing $300,000 worth of copper wire stolen from Alabama and $1 million in data center equipment reported stolen in Florida. In December 2024, thieves took more than $7 million worth of Nvidia computer chips from a California warehouse, just one day before it was scheduled to deliver its products to a Supermicro facility in San Jose.

Supply-chain risk management firm Overhaul has already tracked more than $150 million in AI equipment cargo losses since it began tracking the data, and AI-related theft, including data center equipment and chips, has increased 34% since 2024. The total value of goods stolen has increased by more than 110% in the same time period.

Cargo theft has existed for centuries, but with worldwide AI spending projected to reach $2.7 trillion this year by some estimates, thieves have found a new target: hijacking AI-related cargo to resell on the black market, taking advantage of the steep demand for memory chips and infrastructure build-out, according to Overhaul executive vice president David Warrick. The result? Supply-chain chaos for tech and freight companies, and a big payday for thieves.