By Sasha Rogelberg
Publication Date: 2026-10-01 17:03:00
Cargo pirates, perhaps in search of precious AI loot, found a completely different kind of booty after stealing two trailers from an autonomous trucking company: sand, and lots of it.
The trucking company, PlusAI, confirmed two trailers were stolen last week from its Fremont, California warehouse, including one with Nvidia branding on it. While PlusAI uses Nvidia chips for its self-driving technology, the trailers weren’t carrying those chips, but rather, 40,000 pounds of sand.
The theft happened overnight: Workers discovered the trailers missing the next morning and police recovered them later that day after a friend of PlusAI’s vice president of legal happened to spot them parked outside a Newark office and sent a photo. Authorities told the company the thieves broke open the back of the vehicles, found nothing of value, and left them.
PlusAI uses sand to simulate the loads its trailers must carry to support research and development testing, as carrying the material closely mimics real freight conditions. Each truck held about 20,000 pounds of sand.
Lauren Kwan, vice president of marketing at PlusAI, told Fortune that since the company’s 2016 founding, it has never had a tractor or trailer stolen: “This was a first.” Nvidia declined Fortune’s request for comment.
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