Nvidia hardware has become a specific target for cargo thieves. In 2025, police investigated the theft of more than $7.5 million worth of Nvidia hardware around Fremont and Union City, California. A separate incident in September involved two trailers bearing Nvidia and PlusAI logos, but the thieves apparently abandoned them after discovering they contained sand rather than valuable technology.
High-value Nvidia shipments attract organized thieves
According to The Mercury News, police believe a group involved in the larger theft obtained the robbery vehicle in Southern California before traveling north to the Bay Area.
Professor Olaf Gross of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, told ABC News, “If a chip costs about $550,000, it will sell for about $1 million or more overseas.”
Those margins may be motivating criminals, Gross said, “because the shipments are getting bigger. The heists are becoming more complex, which will show the specialization of the teams that hijack the shipments.”
Stolen trailers contained sand
However, not every attempted theft succeeds. Wired reported that two trailers with Nvidia and PlusAI logos were stolen from outside a warehouse facility in California in September. Nearby police recovered the trailers, apparently after the thieves cut the locks and discovered that each was loaded with 20,000 pounds of sand.
PlusAI is working with Nvidia on self-driving trucking solutions. The sand had been placed in the trailers to simulate the weight of a cargo load.
Source: arstechnica.com
