Millions of dollars worth of data center hardware are being hijacked directly off the delivery trucks and sold to other countries as well as tech firms that want to save money on the "gray" market. Not only servers, but cables, chips, copper wire, as well as Bitcoin mining machines, are the target merchandise.
In 2026, NBC News spoke to industry leaders and investigators who reported that more than $100 million in data center hardware has been stolen since 2025, primarily in California, Texas and Utah. The thieves know where new data centers are being constructed and concoct schemes to divert the shipments or hijack them directly. Increasingly, security guards are escorting the delivery trucks. See
AI data center.