Nvidia hardware has been a specific target. In 2025, police investigated thefts of Nvidia hardware, valued at more than $7.5 million, in Fremont and Union City, California. As reported by The Mercury News, police believe the robberies were carried out by a group that obtained vehicles for the heist in Southern California before traveling north to the Bay Area.
Professor Olaf Groth of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business told ABC News that “if a chip costs around $550,000, then it sells for around $1 million or more overseas.” These margins, he said, may be encouraging criminals: “Because the shipments are getting bigger. The robberies are becoming more complex and that will point towards a professionalization of the teams that kidnap them.”
However, not all potential heist groups do it well. In a September theft reported by Wired, two trailers marked with the Nvidia and PlusAI logos were stolen from outside a warehouse in California. The trailers were recovered by nearby police, presumably after the criminals cut the locks to reveal that each was loaded with 20,000 pounds of sand. PlusAI is a company working on autonomous transportation solutions with Nvidia, and there was sand in the trailers to simulate loads.
