# Oakland police investigate $11.4 million NVIDIA hardware theft

Digest AI · Hardware & Compute · published 2026-11-06T23:03:21Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/oakland-police-investigate-11-4-million-nvidia-hardware-theft

## Summary

Oakland police are investigating the theft of six pallets of NVIDIA hardware valued at $11.4 million. The cargo was picked up in Oakland on August 29, 2026, by a truck displaying a food transportation company's logo, intended for Fort Worth, Texas. The vehicle and drivers went off the grid heading south, making several multi-hour stops before police lost track of them in San Bernardino County. Authorities reported that the disappearance was not noticed until early September, with the theft formally reported on September 13. No arrests have been announced, and the specific contents of the pallets remain undisclosed, leaving it unclear whether the items were AI accelerators, complete systems, or consumer graphics cards.

UC Berkeley professor Olaf Groth noted that NVIDIA chips often sell for roughly double their US price abroad, with a $550,000 compute system potentially fetching $1 million or more. He suggested that the increasing size and complexity of such heists indicate professional crews are involved. This incident follows a pattern of thefts targeting NVIDIA hardware, including burglaries in Fremont and Union City last year worth over $7.5 million combined, and the disappearance of ZOTAC RTX 5090 cards from a São Paulo airport in September.

## Key points

- Six pallets of NVIDIA hardware worth $11.4 million were stolen from a truck in Oakland.
- The theft was reported on September 13, 2026, after the truck went off the grid in August.
- Experts say high resale values abroad are driving increasingly professional theft crews.

## Why it matters

The theft highlights the physical security risks facing the AI hardware supply chain. High demand and significant price differentials between regions make NVIDIA components lucrative targets for organized crime, potentially affecting availability and costs for buyers.

## Sources

1. [Six Pallets of NVIDIA Hardware Worth $11.4 Million Stolen on the Way to Texas](https://techpowerup.com/354551/six-pallets-of-nvidia-hardware-worth-usd-11-4-million-stolen-on-the-way-to-texas) (techpowerup.com, 2026-11-06)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Oakland police investigate $11.4 million NVIDIA hardware theft", 6 November 2026, https://digestai.news/story/oakland-police-investigate-11-4-million-nvidia-hardware-theft

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