Since the disastrous release of Nvidia's RTX 30 series, many PC gamers have struggled to obtain the latest and greatest GPUs that they desire, particularly the 3070, 3080 and 3090. (We reviewed the first two of those, if you're interested in their performance.) However, some enterprising thieves in China have taken the shortages to the next level. According to MSI, 40 cargo boxes worth of top-end GPUs were stolen from an MSI factory in China.
For those of you counting at home, that's over 200 RTX 3090s, which currently retail at around $1500. However, thanks to the ongoing GPU shortage--which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic--the 3090 often goes for $2000 or even more on sites like eBay.
MSI Chinese mainland factory was stolen, stolen 40 boxes RTX3090, the total value of 2200000RMB ......😓
— 夕惕若厉 (@GoFlying8) December 7, 2020
MSI has been officially announced and informed to the police ,Reward of 100000 RMB for reporting effective information. pic.twitter.com/JWw8hOMioG
According to Tom's Hardware, MSI believes that an insider stole the cards because the factory's shipping area is covered by video cameras. They're also offering clemency to those who participated in the heist, as long as they help recover the cards. There's a 100,000 Yuan reward ($15,314) for anyone who has additional information on the cards.