Nvidia-branded PlusAI trailers were stolen, then found full of sand

What the thieves left behind

The trailers were locked with padlocks, which the thieves broke. PlusAI’s driverless tractors, equipped with the company’s technology, remained at the warehouse and were not stolen, Kwan said. By Thursday afternoon, the trailers and all 40,000 pounds of sand had been returned, Fremont police said.

The case remains under investigation, and no arrests have been made, police spokesperson Amy Gee said. Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.

A different kind of cargo theft

The episode comes amid growing thefts of expensive computing equipment, especially chips and other electronics used in data centers. In August, WIRED reported two California cases in which thieves targeted vehicles escorting high-value technology shipments, then took the trucks elsewhere. As of August, equipment worth millions of dollars had not been recovered.

Other targets this year have included Tesla batteries and devices used for bitcoin mining. Authorities made arrests in some cases, but many thefts remained unsolved.

Verisk CargoNet, which analyzes risk and collects cargo data, says metals and enterprise-grade computer and networking equipment have been among the most frequent targets of cargo theft in the United States in recent months.

I think the Nvidia logos make this more than an odd theft story: they point to how valuable technology shipments have become as targets, even when the load behind a recognizable logo is only test material. The announcement says nothing about whether the thieves knew what was inside. That gap matters: a theft motivated by the perceived value of a shipment is a different problem from one aimed at a specific cargo.