A surge in copper thefts is delaying construction of the nation’s newest artificial intelligence data centers, as organized crews target wiring and expensive equipment on sprawling job sites from Virginia to Texas. The trend has accelerated alongside a boom in AI computing demand, hitting an industry already pressed to meet tight build schedules.
The Scope of the Problem
Construction sites in Loudoun County, known as “Data Center Alley,” have reported multiple thefts of copper and other materials since 2023. The pattern extends well beyond Virginia, with similar incidents documented in Arizona and Texas. The losses are substantial: at some sites, the total value of stolen equipment has exceeded $500,000 per occurrence.
Thieves typically sell the copper to scrap metal dealers, where prices in 2024 have fluctuated around $3 to $4 per pound. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has noted a rise in organized theft rings specifically targeting construction materials.
According to the FBI, these are not opportunistic crimes but coordinated efforts by groups that understand the value of unguarded equipment on these sites and have methods to move it quickly. The nature of data center campuses makes them especially vulnerable: they sprawl across hundreds of acres, and fencing alone cannot fully secure such vast perimeters. Local law enforcement is responding.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office has increased patrols and is deploying surveillance technology to monitor construction sites. Yet the geography works against them.
With so much open ground to cover, thieves continue to find windows of opportunity, often striking at night when sites are empty.
Safety Risks and Market Pressures
The thefts carry dangers beyond financial loss. Cutting live wires poses serious safety risks: electrocution and fires are real possibilities when thieves work quickly, often in darkness, without knowing which cables carry current.
A single mistake on a live line can be fatal. These hazards add another layer of risk for construction crews who return each morning to find wiring or equipment missing. The pressure to build these specialized facilities is immense.
An AI data center is designed for the computationally intensive tasks of training and running artificial intelligence and machine learning models. Unlike general-purpose facilities, these sites house hardware optimized for parallel processing demands.
The push to construct them accelerated during the AI boom of the 2020s. Major technology companies, known as hyperscalers, and a newer generation of providers called neoclouds began a global competition for semiconductors and power. That surge in construction led to a global memory supply shortage. By 2026, many U.S. communities began organizing against these projects.
Local resistance focuses on the large amounts of power and water these facilities consume. They generate heat, noise, and other pollutants, and because each server rack requires more electricity than standard data centers, they place a heavy load on existing power grids.
The race to build has led to massive projects on farmland and in urban hubs across the United States, China, India, and Europe. The AI data center market is projected to grow from $20 billion in 2023 to over $100 billion by 2028, according to industry reports. Every day a data center is not operational is a day of lost computing capacity in a market that cannot get enough.
For now, construction crews in Loudoun County and beyond are working under a new reality: the copper they lay in the morning may be gone by nightfall. Patrols are out, cameras are rolling, and according to the FBI, the thieves are getting more organized.
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