Nvidia hardware worth $11.4M vanished between Oakland and Texas
Nvidia hardware has repeatedly been targeted by thieves in the United States. According to an expert, high prices abroad may be attracting criminals, and the heists are growing more complex.
Nvidia hardware worth $11.4 million has vanished on the way from Oakland, California, to Texas, according to technology outlet Ars Technica. The case is part of a series of thefts in the United States that have specifically targeted products from Nvidia, the computer chip maker.
Earlier cases
In 2025, police investigated burglaries of Nvidia hardware in Fremont and Union City, California. The stolen equipment was valued at more than $7.5 million. The Mercury News reported that police believe the thefts were carried out by a group that obtained vehicles for the job in Southern California before traveling north to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Why chips are stolen
Olaf Groth, a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, told ABC News that if a chip costs about $550,000, it can fetch about $1 million or more abroad. In his view, such margins may be encouraging criminals. Groth said cargoes are getting bigger and the heists more complex, which points to a professionalization of the teams hijacking them.
A failed attempt
Not every attempt succeeds. As Wired reported, two trailers marked with Nvidia and PlusAI logos were stolen in September from outside a warehouse facility in California. PlusAI is a company that works with Nvidia on autonomous trucking technology. Police recovered the trailers nearby. The thieves had apparently cut the locks, only to find that each trailer held 20,000 pounds (about 9,070 kilograms) of sand, which had been loaded to simulate a freight load.
