Investigators near Chicago recently opened two stolen trailers and found about $1.3 million in data center supplies. Roughly $300,000 of it was copper wire taken in Alabama. Business Insider reported the recovery.
A third trailer, hauling $1 million in infrastructure equipment, had been stolen in Florida. The pattern is plain enough: wherever a data center goes up, the materials arrive by the truckload before a single server is installed, and thieves have noticed.
A crowded black market
The US Department of Homeland Security puts the cost of cargo theft to businesses at about $35 billion a year. The AI building boom, Vice noted, has opened a fresh niche inside that market.
Copper is the obvious prize. Wire, cable and equipment sit on construction sites and in transit, and demand for the metal keeps rising as EVs, data centers and grid projects all compete for it.
Utilities are feeling it too
The trouble is not limited to construction yards. Bell Canada reported a 78% jump in copper wire theft on its network this year, with New Brunswick up 235%. Thieves strip the wire from poles at night. A telecom executive writing about the figures warned that such thefts can knock out calls and even emergency services.
The same executive put US losses from copper theft at an estimated $1 billion a year. AT&T has taken a bounty approach, offering cash rewards of up to $20,000 for tips that lead to copper thieves.
Sources
- Thieves Are Now Targeting AI Data Center Construction Sites for Copper and Expensive Equipment
- Copper Wire Theft Surges 78% in Canada, Impacting Calls and Emergency Services | Shashank Narain Mathur posted on the topic | LinkedIn
