Two trailers bearing the logos of PlusAI and Nvidia were stolen and then recovered in Newark, California, after a tipster spotted them near his workplace. The trailers, which were docked outside a PlusAI warehouse roughly half a mile away, were reported to police and recovered with their cargo apparently untouched. The unrecognized location of the trailers prompted a PlusAI executive to receive a congratulatory text from an acquaintance who had seen two of the company's trucks near his office.

The theft's apparent motive quickly became clear when PlusAI employees told police what was inside. Each trailer held about 20,000 pounds of sand, for a total of 40,000 pounds, according to company spokesperson Lauren Kwan, who said PlusAI uses the simulated loads to assist with research and development testing. The trailers were recovered with all 40,000 pounds of sand intact. Kwan said the trailers had been secured with hand locks, which were broken.

PlusAI's technology-enabled truck cabs, where a driver typically sits and controls the vehicle, were parked inside the company's warehouse and were not taken, Kwan said. The company, a self-driving truck developer, works with Nvidia, described in the article as the most valuable company in the world, on AI software and autonomous truck technology. The Fremont Police Department is investigating the case, and spokesperson Amy Gee said no arrests have been made.

The incident arrives amid a rise in thefts targeting high-value computer equipment, particularly chips and other electronics destined for data centers. In August, two California incidents were revealed in which thieves deliberately struck the vehicles of security escorts that follow valuable tech loads to ensure they reach their destinations, then drove the trucks to another location. As of that month, millions of dollars of data center equipment from those loads had not been recovered.

Other targets this year have included Tesla batteries and various bitcoin mining machines, and authorities have made arrests in some cases while many crimes remain unsolved. According to Verisk CargoNet, an analytics and risk assessment firm, metals and enterprise-grade computer and networking equipment rank among the most common cargo theft targets across the United States in recent months. By Thursday afternoon, the sand trailers were back with PlusAI, according to the Fremont Police Department.

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