Organized crime is building an AI hardware cargo theft economy: ‘The economics have become just crazy from the criminal opportunistic perspective’

With the data center boom projected to swell into a $7 trillion market by the end of the decade, organized criminals are centering on a particular shadow economy: hijacking AI supply chains and selling their spoils on the foreign black market for a hefty profit. Cargo theft has been around for centuries, evident for example in the train robbers of the late 1800s, but soaring demand for AI hardware has shifted heist targets to data centers and the technology’s ever-expanding infrastructure. This new black market first emerged nearly as soon as ChatGPT’s release, gaining steam three to five years ago along with the AI buildout, said David Warrick, executive vice president of supply-chain risk management firm Overhaul. The expansion of the technology has been so rapid it’s created hardware shortages, including a memory chip ‘RAM-ageddon’ that tech experts fear will persist for years. It’s also created multimillion-dollar opportunities for smugglers who have found weak points along the technology’s American supply chain. Just last week, investigators with the Cook County Sheriff’s office in Illinois recovered $1.3 million worth of data center equipment last week, saying in a social media post that authorities found two trailers outside of Chicago, with one including $300,000 in copper wires that were reported stolen in Pine Hill, Alabama, as well as about $1 million in data center infrastructure equipment that was reported stolen in Jacksonville, Florida, earlier this month. Copper wires are commonly used for data transmission and cooling systems. “The economics have become just crazy from the criminal opportunistic perspective,” Warrick told Fortune. “As the world pours a trillion dollars in there, and everybody’s spending a lot of money, the criminals are saying, ‘What a great opportunity; you need to be part of this.’ That’s the way it works.” The rise of the AI hardware theft economy Cargo theft was a $725 million problem in 2025, according to data