Record investments of 67 billion euros in 2025 and already 93 more promised at the Choose France summit in June 2026: data centers are swallowing up a quantity of wealth in France alone. These enormous buildings, whose technological and monetary value are powered by artificial intelligence (AI), use highly prized hardware, such as AI processors or cooling systems. Infrastructures which, although monitored, are mostly empty, given the few jobs they generate.
Double boon for burglars, who can infiltrate several links in the supply chain. The race to build data centers also reinforces cargo theft, that is, the interception of products and equipment in transit by organized crime. This is even more true in the United States, where data centers are gigantic. The total macroeconomic impact of cargo theft across the Atlantic amounts to $35 billion (around 31 billion euros) per year, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In the European Union, the damage is estimated at 8.2 billion euros according to the TAPA association, although the methodology and the actor are different.
At the end of June, American police officers in Chicago found two stolen semi-trailers further south, in Alabama, whose cargo was intended to supply a data center. The loot amounts to 1.3 million dollars (more than 1.1 million euros), including 300,000 dollars worth of copper wire. Investigators are still tracking the thieves, as Business Insider reports.
Another truck, this time worth $1 million (nearly 900,000 euros), also disappeared in Florida. According to the Canadian Press, the prize, however, goes to the 5 million dollars (4.4 million euros) of copper and computer equipment that disappeared during their delivery on board twelve semi-trailers to, again, data centers.
Using AI to better target AI
You will therefore probably not see the burglars in the demonstrations of local residents who oppose the construction of these data centers. The rise of artificial intelligence has exploded the price of the computer equipment they resell, and increased the opportunities for theft. But that’s not all, the AI that they attack indirectly also optimizes and strengthens their ability to develop daring heists.
“Before, they would just break a padlock, break into a truck and leave with the lootexplains to Canadian Press Emily Williams, vice-president of the freight company Geotab. Today, criminals use generative AI to automate the sending of phishing emails in order to gain access to transport company data and the identity of employees. Once in the system, they know when and where the best shipments are sent. They then pose as the real delivery people under false identities, or pocket contracts by offering a lower price than the competition.”
“Bandits are good at marketing”confirms, still with our Canadian colleagues relayed by Futurism, Keith Lewis, director of operations at Verisk CargoNet, a company specializing in risk assessment. He’s talking about organized crime “so much more strategic these days”who knows better how to target “what is valuable and what they know how to sell”. The equipment is often already sold before being stolen.
Thus, revenues from these supply chain burglaries jumped by 60% in 2025 in North America, peaking according to CargoNet at $725 million (635 million euros). “The emergence of data centers is not for nothing, since many of the components used in them are stolen: server racks, RAM, copper…” lists Keith Lewis. The number of cargo thefts has not even particularly increased. It is the value of the average loot (273,990 dollars, or 240,163 euros) which increased by 36%. There is at least one good news: thefts of consumer electronics, such as televisions and personal computers, are now fewer.
To curb this new, more sophisticated type of cargo theft, experts recommend more modern measures. For example, companies can install more surveillance cameras, including in trucks, sensors, integrated security systems, and other “real-time visibility” software to report anomalies. “The current problem is fragmentationlaments Emily Williams. When you manage a fleet of vehicles, their trailers and their security with several separate systems, you create blind spots that thieves know how to exploit.”
