WASHINGTON, July 7 — The scene at the FBI’s Washington Field Office is one of quiet, methodical urgency. On the desk of Special Agent in Charge David Sundberg, reports pile up — each one detailing a fresh hit on a construction site, a stolen generator, a missing server rack, a spool of copper wire vanished into the night. Sundberg runs the field office that holds jurisdiction over Northern Virginia, a region that has become the epicenter of America’s artificial intelligence boom.
And that boom, it turns out, has a dark underbelly. By nightfall, the thieves move.
They target the sprawling construction sites of AI data centers — the massive, windowless buildings that house the servers powering the nation’s digital future. The thefts are not random acts of vandalism. Sundberg’s agents have been tracking organized theft rings that treat these sites like open-air vaults.
The numbers tell the story. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program, construction site thefts across the United States rose by 10% in 2023.
That single figure masks a far more complex reality on the ground, where the losses are measured not just in stolen equipment but in delayed projects and rising insurance premiums. Sundberg has been public about the scale of the problem. Copper thefts alone, he has emphasized, cost the U.S. economy $1 billion annually.
That billion-dollar figure is not abstract — it represents wiring ripped from the walls of half-built facilities, cables hacked from trenches, and raw material sold to scrap yards for a fraction of its value. The Washington Field Office’s response has been multi-pronged. In 2023, the office provided training to local law enforcement agencies on theft prevention specifically tailored to data center construction sites.
The sessions covered everything from surveillance techniques to securing supply chains, aimed at stopping the thefts before they happen. But the problem has escalated.
Sundberg has coordinated closely with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on cases involving stolen generators and server racks. These are not petty crimes — the equipment is heavy, valuable, and requires planning to move. The ATF’s involvement signals that federal investigators see these theft rings as sophisticated operations, not opportunistic smash-and-grabs.
The scope of the investigation reaches beyond law enforcement. The Washington Field Office has also worked with the U.S. Department of Energy to assess supply chain vulnerabilities.
That partnership reflects a growing concern that the thefts are not merely a property crime problem but a threat to the nation’s critical infrastructure. Data centers are essential to everything from cloud computing to national security systems. When a server rack disappears from a construction site, it is not just a loss for the contractor — it is a gap in the digital backbone of the country.
Sundberg’s public comments have focused on the economic consequences. The $1 billion annual loss from copper theft is a figure he has used to drive home the point that these are not victimless crimes. The cost is ultimately borne by businesses, insurers, and consumers.
But there is also a security dimension that he and his team are tracking closely. The theft rings operating in Northern Virginia are not random.
Investigators have found patterns — the same types of equipment targeted, the same methods of entry, the same routes for moving stolen goods. Sundberg’s agents are working to connect the dots between thefts at multiple sites, looking for the networks that coordinate the operations. On the ground, residents describe a strange new reality.
The construction sites that dot the landscape of Loudoun County and Prince William County — the heart of what is called Data Center Alley — have become targets. The thefts often happen overnight, when sites are empty.
Workers arrive in the morning to find gaps in the fencing, tire tracks in the mud, and empty spaces where equipment stood the night before. The FBI’s involvement has brought federal resources to what was once a local law enforcement problem. Sundberg’s field office has the reach to coordinate across jurisdictions, following the stolen goods as they move from construction sites to scrap yards to export markets.
The copper that disappears from a data center in Northern Virginia could end up anywhere. The investigation is ongoing. Sundberg and his team continue to track the organized rings, working with local police, the ATF, and the Department of Energy.
The training programs continue. The assessments of supply chain vulnerabilities continue.
But the thefts have not stopped. What comes next will depend on whether law enforcement can disrupt the networks that are driving the surge. Sundberg’s office is betting that a coordinated federal response — training, intelligence-sharing, and targeted enforcement — can turn the tide.
For now, the data center construction sites remain vulnerable, and the thieves remain at large.
