$340,000 worth of MSI's Nvidia RTX 3090s Stolen in China

MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim
(Image credit: MSI)

In a sad turn of fate, 40 cargo boxes of RTX 3090's were stolen from MSI's factory in China this morning, amounting to $336,500 worth of stolen graphics cards. MSI has notified the police regarding the matter and posted a reward of 100,000 Yuan ($15k) for anyone who has useful information regarding the RTX 3090 cargo boxes' whereabouts. 

MSI's communications on the matter indicate that the factory's shipping area is covered by video surveillance. The company also frequently inspects the trucks that come in and out of the campus. As a result, MSI believes an insider stole the cards. MSI also offers clemency for any participant that steps forward, provided they help locate the stolen items.    

Unfortunately, it makes a lot of sense for criminals to steal Nvidia's flagship graphics cards right now. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090s are still incredibly rare at retail due to high demand, and many of the 3090's on offer are still being sold far above MSRP. In fact, the median selling price of an RTX 3090 is currently estimated at $2,250

That makes RTX 3090s and other current-generation GPUs super valuable as they can be flipped for crazy prices and still sell due to customer desperation. Hopefully, the police can get to the bottom of the issue and find the graphics cards before the thieves sell them.

Luckily, this shouldn't upset the market too much. After doing some quick math, the amount of RTX 3090's missing comes to around 220 units, which isn't a lot. But that means there will be a deficit in MSI RTX 3090 SKUs if these cards were headed to your location. But luckily, this is just a single batch, and none of the other AIB partners had cards stolen.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • Math Geek
    so what like 20 of them?
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    inside job lol
    Reply
  • spentshells
    Maybe the reward should be more than the price of 3 of them on the reseller market.
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    Inside job for sure.

    These will end up on ebay in 3...2....1..

    Remember folks don't buy from scalpers.
    Reply
  • Phaaze88
    Wow.

    Makaveli said:
    These will end up on ebay in 3...2....1..
    Wouldn't the thieves be exposing themselves if they did that? Or would they just make a bunch of different accounts to circumvent it?

    But then all the seller listings would be from China... plus, there's still shipping and VAT..?
    Reply
  • ddg4005
    I guess they REALLY wanted a Merry Christmas!
    Reply
  • Math Geek
    Phaaze88 said:
    Wow.


    Wouldn't the thieves be exposing themselves if they did that? Or would they just make a bunch of different accounts to circumvent it?

    But then all the seller listings would be from China... plus, there's still shipping and VAT..?

    i'm pretty sure they could just hit the local grey area flea market and offload them for cash pretty quick. at least that's what i would do. why bother getting internet involved when i'm sure they could be spread out to a few cities and offloaded for cash very easily. they are not only sought after in the US, but everywhere else in the world as well. though with the police involved, you'd probably have to head more than a mile away from the factory to be safe. but china is a rather large country with a billion+ people in it. i'm sure a couple hundred cards can be sold and forgotten about rather quickly. probably already done
    Reply
  • Phaaze88
    @Math Geek
    Understood. Thanks!

    Over and done with well before this article even went live... :mdr:
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    Phaaze88 said:
    Wow.


    Wouldn't the thieves be exposing themselves if they did that? Or would they just make a bunch of different accounts to circumvent it?

    But then all the seller listings would be from China... plus, there's still shipping and VAT..?

    A smart thief would have multiple accounts created behind a VPN.

    I'm sure there are plenty of people in Asia that would grab one for a discounted price if they could. Plus you don't have to use EBay that is just one option.
    Reply
  • colin.yapp
    Probably sold to miners.
    Reply