Soaring demand for insurance tied to data center construction is creating what S&P Global Ratings calls a meaningful growth opportunity for insurers and reinsurers, with premium volume now outpacing some long-established specialty markets, according to Bloomberg.
Analysts led by Charles-Marie Delpuech and Patricia Kwan said the market for data center construction-related cover could reach $10 bn in premiums in 2026. For context, annual premium volume in the global aviation market stands at about $5 bn.
S&P said demand for large, specialised, power-intensive campuses is opening a sizeable new lane for the global insurance and reinsurance sector.
The shift is being driven by AI. Wider adoption of artificial intelligence has pushed demand for bigger and more complex data centers, and S&P expects annual investment in these facilities to exceed $300 bn by 2030.
Right now, the 11,000 data centers already operating worldwide account for more than $2 tn in insurable value.
Project size keeps moving up. As campuses grow, individual developments may eventually carry as much as $30 bn in insurable value. Today, the largest infrastructure projects usually need coverage of up to $10 bn, according to S&P.
No single insurer can absorb that kind of exposure alone. So the market is leaning on shared placements, spreading risk across insurance and reinsurance partners.
Hyperscale campuses also bring a different risk profile. Business interruption gets more complicated because these sites are deeply interconnected with other facilities.
Some exposures remain only partly insured, which leaves project sponsors relying on self-insurance or alternative capital to fill the gaps.
Even so, some commercial insurers have started offering larger limits, with capacity in certain cases stretching into the low single-digit billions.
