The AI boom has created one of the largest construction rushes in American history. Billions of dollars are pouring into new data centers across the country, with tech giants racing to build the infrastructure needed to power the next generation of artificial intelligence. Wherever that much money flows, organized crime follows.
Thieves have identified AI data centers as their newest high-value target, and the numbers are already staggering.
In late June 2026, investigators at the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois recovered two stolen trailers parked at a Chicago-area truck yard after receiving a tip about stolen copper. Inside, they found $300,000 worth of copper wire spools that had been stolen from a data center facility in Pine Hill, Alabama, and a separate $1 million worth of data center infrastructure equipment stolen from Jacksonville, Florida. The operation appeared coordinated, with thieves replacing the trailer’s license tags with Indiana plates to obscure its origin. The copper trailer was ultimately tracked down through its GPS.
The $1.3 million recovery is just one incident in a rapidly growing trend. According to data analytics firm Verisk CargoNet, cargo theft in the United States hit $725 million in 2025, a 60% jump from the prior year. Metal theft alone surged 77%, driven largely by soaring copper prices. The average value per cargo theft incident climbed 36%, to nearly $275,000, as thieves abandoned lower-value consumer goods in favor of servers, storage hardware, and copper wire, the materials powering the AI infrastructure boom.
The appeal is obvious. Data center construction sites are stacked with high-value materials, often in transit across hundreds of miles of highway with limited security. Copper alone fetches strong prices on the black market and can be quickly recycled for cash. Servers and storage drives are harder to move but command enormous resale value to the right buyer.
Industry experts say the trend will only accelerate as AI investment grows. As one security analyst told Fortune: “As the world pours a trillion dollars in there, the criminals are saying, what a great opportunity.”
