this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
1539 points (99.4% liked)
Technology
86444 readers
2982 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
The comment I came in to make sure existed. Thank you for doing the good work.
This is very unfortunate. There is a tremendous amount of copper in these data centers, thieves would be able to steal so much copper from data center job sites. It's frightening to think about it
Not just copper. These server racks are so unfortunately loaded up with parts and components worth a lot of money on the open market. Very unfortunately they have enterprise grade SSDs worth thousands and AI accellerater cards worth 10s of thousands.
And these poor starving companies very unfortunately don't have the funds to hire a lot of security staff. It's sadly usually just one guy.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Honestly, logistical problems with the weight are gonna be one of the first hurdles. It's way more than you would even think.
Some say that even if every meth head in the city showed up there would be copper left over.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
Nature is healing
It's not stealing, they are just training their copper prediction model
They're increasing GDP! Raising the price of copper by increasing demand
load more comments
(1 replies)
Aren't these data centers built on our land, right next to our homes, using our water and electricity, funded by selling our data (that we didn't consent to), and the profits all go to giant corporations, not us? Fuck 'em. I hope they all get raided and stripped bare...
load more comments
(16 replies)
Young entrepreneurs just pulling at those little bootstraps, Regan would be proud of their ambition in advancing their station.
load more comments
(7 replies)
Oh my god, that's terrible! Where are these construction sites so that people can avoid them?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Oh no, the corporations which stole immeasurable quantities of our data to train their for-profit AI models are having their building materials stolen. My heart bleeds.
uplifting news
Easy Mode Above Ground Copper Mines
Don't tell them there's copper and other precious metals they can steal in AI datacenters. Also, most definitely DO NOT tell them most AI datacenters are completely unstaffed and easily accessible.
Copper by weight is cheap as hell. RAM & NVME drives are a WAY better ROI. It wouldn’t even be worth carrying the whole server.
Copper is way easier to fence and way easier to steal. The RAM and NVME aren't getting installed until the building has functional security. The mile of copper wire to run power is locked in a trailer and might not even have a permanent fence around it yet.
load more comments
(4 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
I've read science fiction books in which humans scavenged the machines' supplies like rodents scavenging from a kitchen, and now it's reality.
Clickbait circlejerk slop. Every construction site is a target for thieves. This is just low effort clickbait made to pander to the anti-datacenter circlejerk, you could at least have linked instead to the business insider article this is ripping off.
- The data center bubble is driving the up cost of copper, copper futures and copper scrap to meme stock levels.
- Higher copper scrap prices are driving up the amount of copper theft to meme crime levels.
- Thus data centers have a direct causal relationship with copper theft.
- So no, it's not an "anti-data center" circle jerk.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(9 replies)
Finally, a positive benefit to failed capitalism!
This is TERRIBLE! WHY can't they Target SCHOOLS or Homeless shelters INSTEAD?
-Republican Voters!
Thank you for your service to the people doing this.
Remember guys, snitches get stitches.
Snitches don't get free second-hand enterprise switches
Imagine starting to work from the inside and weld things wrong, install wiring just, "good enough," knowing full well one of the plugs will start a fire, shit inside the cement and make shit laced walls.
Construction workers can still get paid and inspection workers can be in on it too. It happens over and over again and eventually it becomes something that's not cost feasible to keep trying to rebuild knowing there will be a failure.
load more comments
(5 replies)
Stop. Don’t. Come back.
Remember, if you see someone stealing from a data center.... no, you didn't.
Can't steal from thieves
Robin Hoods in action.
Be a modern day Robin Hood; steal copper from an AI data center
While the AI revolution threatens to kill countless jobs, leaving potentially millions of Americans in the lurch, maybe all those future jobless Americans can turn to the booming data center theft industry. Maybe AI is a job creator?
Ah yes, my retirement plan from the tech sector…
Copper theft has always followed expensive infrastructure. AI data centers are just the newest high-value targets.
load more comments
(3 replies)
view more: next ›