Thieves steal PlusAI and Nvidia-branded trailers, find ≈18 t of sand

A PlusAI executive got a congratulatory text Thursday morning from an acquaintance who'd spotted two company trucks near his office in Newark, California. One problem: the trailers were supposed to be half a mile away, parked outside the company warehouse.

Police were called. The two trailers — plastered with PlusAI and Nvidia logos, the latter being the AI software and autonomous driving development partner — were found abandoned.

Here's why the thieves ditched the haul: each trailer held roughly 20 thousand pounds (about 9 metric tons) of sand. "PlusAI uses simulated loads in trailers to assist with R&D testing," company spokeswoman Lauren Kwan said. Total recovery: 40 thousand pounds (about 18 metric tons) of sand, unharmed.

The cabs — the tractor units, the part with the driver's seat and all of PlusAI's tech — never left the warehouse. The trailers were secured with padlocks. Those were broken. The investigation continues; no arrests so far, according to Fremont Police spokeswoman Amy Gee. Nvidia didn't respond to a media request.

The heist lands amid a spike in high-value data-center gear thefts — chips, electronics, the works. In August, Wired detailed two California cases where thieves specifically targeted secured escort vehicles carrying expensive tech shipments, diverting the trucks to new destinations. As of August, millions of dollars in data-center equipment hadn't been recovered. This year also brought thefts of Tesla batteries and Bitcoin mining rigs; some suspects were caught, plenty of cases remain open.

Verisk CargoNet, the analytics and risk-assessment outfit, says the most common cargo-theft targets in recent months across the U.S. have been metals and enterprise-grade computing and networking gear. This one ends on a relatively high note: by Thursday afternoon, the trailers and the sand were back with PlusAI, per Fremont Police.