With the data center boom projected to swell into a $7 trillion market by the end of the decade, organized criminals are centering on a particular shadow economy: hijacking AI supply chains and selling their spoils on the foreign black market for a hefty profit.
Cargo theft has been around for centuries, evident for example in the train robbers of the late 1800s, but soaring demand for AI hardware has shifted heist targets to data centers and the technology’s ever-expanding infrastructure. This new black market first emerged nearly as soon as ChatGPT’s release, gaining steam three to five years ago along with the AI buildout, said David Warrick, executive vice president of supply-chain risk management firm Overhaul. The expansion of the technology has been so rapid it’s created hardware shortages, including a memory chip ‘RAM-ageddon’ that tech experts fear will persist for years. It’s also created multimillion-dollar opportunities for smugglers who have found weak points along the technology’s American supply chain.
