Two Pallets of RTX 5090 Graphics Cards Go Missing at Brazil Airport

Preface

A Brazilian electronics distributor says two pallets of Zotac RTX 5090 graphics cards disappeared at São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport, the country’s largest airport. The shipment’s stated purchase cost was about 2.5 million Brazilian reais, equivalent to about US$490,000 using the exchange rate cited for October 16. The distributor, Oderço, says it had received no response by the time it published a statement and an 88-second video on Instagram on the evening of October 16. Airport concessionaire GRU Airport, however, says it had notified the company on October 14 about how to begin a compensation process. The central unresolved issue is where in the cargo-handling process the pallets went missing: that information could help establish who is responsible. No public account has yet established the shipment’s precise disappearance point or confirmed whether the case involved theft or a logistics failure.

Lazy bag

Two pallets of Zotac RTX 5090 cards, with a reported purchase cost of about 2.5 million reais (about US$490,000), are unaccounted for at Guarulhos Airport. Oderço says it received no response, while GRU Airport says it had already provided guidance on starting compensation. The distributor has not disclosed the number of cards, shipment dates, or tracking details. Brazilian customs rules distinguish responsibility for tax on lost imports according to when the loss is discovered, but that does not automatically determine commercial compensation to the cargo owner. Until the point of disappearance is established, responsibility and the final payment remain unclear.

Main Body

What is known about the shipment

The missing goods are described as two pallets of Zotac RTX 5090 graphics cards. The cargo owner, Oderço, is an electronics distributor based in Maringá, in the state of Paraná. The company says its purchase cost for the shipment was about 2.5 million Brazilian reais, or about US$490,000. The conversion uses the Brazilian Central Bank rate for October 16: US$1 to 5.08 reais. Some media headlines have cited US$470,000, using an older exchange rate; the figure based on the stated October 16 rate is about US$490,000.

Oderço has not publicly revealed the number of cards, the shipment’s arrival date, when it was discovered missing, or a tracking number. A rough estimate can be made from Brazilian retail prices, but it is not a confirmed count. RTX 5090 cards reportedly sell for about 33,000 to 39,000 reais in Brazilian retail channels, with Zotac models around 35,000 reais. Dividing the reported purchase cost of 2.5 million reais by a retail price of about 35,000 reais suggests roughly 70 cards. This is only an estimate: the stated amount is the distributor’s purchase cost, which is below the retail price, so the actual number could be higher.

The RTX 5090 is Nvidia’s top-tier gaming graphics card. It has 32GB of memory and is also used for artificial intelligence workloads. Oderço president Oderço Matos described it as one of the market’s most commonly used products for AI and said it was very difficult to obtain. In the United States, the card had been out of stock at retail outlets since mid-September, was later removed from Nvidia’s official store, and was no longer being sold by Micro Center. Rumors that production had stopped circulated, but Nvidia had not confirmed them.

Two accounts of the response

On the evening of October 16, Oderço posted a statement and an 88-second video on its official Instagram account. Matos said the company had sought answers and made contact but had received no response as of that day. He also said that someone knew what had happened and should be held responsible. In the video, he asserted that there had been no process and no camera records at what he called Latin America’s largest airport. These are claims made by the distributor, not independently confirmed findings. The public materials did not identify when the cargo arrived, when the disappearance was discovered, or the point in the handling chain where it occurred.

GRU Airport’s account differs. In a written response to Brazilian aviation outlet AEROIN, the airport concessionaire said it had been dealing with the matter since learning of it. It said the disappearance had been formally reported to the relevant authorities and that it was assisting the investigation. According to GRU, its customer service team remained in contact with representatives of the importer. The airport also said that, on October 14, “given that some time had passed,” it had provided guidance on the steps needed to start a compensation process. It was waiting for the customer to submit the required documents; after reviewing them, the process would be completed with support from the legal department.

The timeline helps explain the disagreement. GRU says it gave compensation guidance on October 14, two days before Oderço’s public appeal on October 16. Oderço says it had not received a response. Some media headlines have characterized the matter as receiving “no response,” but GRU’s written statement does describe a compensation process. Neither account, however, explains where the pallets disappeared or whether surveillance footage recorded anything relevant.

As of October 17, Brazil’s Federal Police and the Federal Revenue Service (Receita Federal), which oversees customs, had not responded to media inquiries. No authority had publicly classified the incident as a theft, and no authority had attributed it to a logistics error. Those distinctions matter: the public record describes a missing shipment, not a confirmed crime or a finding of negligence.

How responsibility may be determined

Brazil’s Customs Regulation, established by Presidential Decree No. 6,759 of 2009, addresses responsibility for tax due on lost imported goods. Article 660 distinguishes between losses discovered at different stages. If a loss is discovered before goods are unloaded into a customs-controlled area, the carrier is responsible for the tax. If it is discovered after unloading, while the goods are under a custodian’s care, the custodian is responsible. Article 664 allows for exemption in cases of force majeure.

These provisions concern tax owed to the government. They do not, by themselves, determine the commercial compensation owed to Oderço for the missing goods. GRU’s public response refers to its existing process but does not state the legal basis or explain how responsibility will be allocated. The question of where the loss occurred remains central both to identifying the relevant party and to understanding what compensation may be available. Until that point is established, the customs rule cannot resolve the broader dispute between the distributor and the airport operator.

Earlier cargo-theft cases at the airport

Guarulhos Airport has been the site of earlier police investigations involving cargo, but authorities have not said that those cases are connected to the missing RTX 5090 shipment. In September 2025, São Paulo state police began “Operation Check-In” at the airport’s cargo terminal. The first phase resulted in 3 arrests and searches at 8 locations.

On November 4, 2025, another operation targeted a group suspected of stealing goods from the cargo area. Police estimated losses at about 100 million reais, and an outsourced employee was arrested. The alleged method included entering false cargo-release records, moving goods out of the cargo area, and then reselling them on the black market. These details provide context about previous investigations, not evidence about what happened to Oderço’s pallets.

In the third phase, on January 6, 2026, police arrested a forklift operator suspected of assisting in at least three thefts involving phones and screens, with a combined value of about 3 million reais. Surveillance footage reportedly showed him placing a shipment of phone screens outside the customs inspection process on June 23, 2025. A few hours later, another man entered and removed the goods. Again, no authority has linked that case to the RTX 5090 shipment.

What remains unresolved

The current public record leaves several basic questions unanswered: when the pallets arrived, when they were last accounted for, where they disappeared, whether camera footage exists, and how many cards were in the shipment. Oderço’s statements and GRU Airport’s response establish that the parties have different descriptions of their communication, while the airport says a compensation process has begun. They do not establish who caused the loss or who will ultimately pay.

Earlier cargo investigations may show that theft has occurred at the airport, but they cannot serve as proof in this case. Likewise, the distributor’s assertion about missing procedures or camera records has not been publicly verified. The decisive evidence will be the shipment’s documented path through the airport and the point at which it was last confirmed to be in custody. Until GRU or investigators disclose that information, the disappearance remains unresolved, and the final amount and source of compensation are uncertain.

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