Authorities recover $1.3 million worth of data center supplies and equipment in a truck stop near Chicago. Equipment like this is a prime target for theft rings given its high value, but it's also likely difficult to sell given its specialized nature.
  • FalcoLombardi1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6 hours

    Looks like most people in here both, didn’t actually read that everything was recovered, and also don’t understand freight theft.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
    7 hours

    What a weird crime.

    This is like stealing hospital equipment, sure it’s high value, but who are you going to sell it to that isn’t going to ask questions?

    I can see corporate espionage making sense, one AI company stealing chips from another AI company but it doesn’t seem like these guys had a buyer.

    • CADmonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 hours

      Maybe they are stealing them to delay/sabotage a data center. And increase freight insurance rates.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        4 hours

        Yeah but even then, these are high-end server chips that require rack power supplies and industrial cooling. At most you’d want like two of them and even then you’d have to have a pretty beefy electrical connection, any more than that and the cops are going to be raiding your place thinking you’re growing weed.

    • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7 hours

      There’s a black market for export to China but they’d need to already have contacts or involvement for that to work.

      Although ot would be way funnier to see unobtainium enterprise gear end up on ebay lol.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.caEnglish
        1 hour

        Stuff stolen in Alabama and Florida later found in Chicago… that’s organized crime, so seems probable they’d have the contacts needed to fence the goods internationally.

        But they probably could sell RAM and SSDs at a discount on eBay right now.

  • elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    9 hours

    However, they are also specialized machines that are often only bought by institutions and large companies, so thieves would likely have a hard time selling them on the black market.

    I’m sure Russian, North Korean and buyers from some other countries would care about that.

    • wopalopa@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8 hours

      its safe to assume those are the perpetrator. even north korea dont want to get left behind in the ai rat race i guess