The global data centre insurance market is projected to grow from currently around US $11 billion to more than $24 billion by 2030, which comes as the market continues to drive an influx of infrastructure risks and opportunities, according to Allianz Commercial, the commercial insurance business of Allianz Group.
The company states that this growth will be supported by expanding data centre capacity, higher insured values and increasingly complex operational risks.
Research from the insurer shows that construction costs for individual AI campuses can exceed $20 billion, with insured values rising considerably higher once high-performance computing equipment is installed.
The company also highlighted how the insurance requirements of data centres are broadening as the space continues to expand and gain momentum.
As per Allianz Commercial, demand is expected to extend beyond traditional property cover towards integrated solutions spanning construction, engineering, property, business interruption, cyber and liability.
The firm also points to further opportunities for insurers in areas such as energy resilience, operational continuity, and technology risk.
Allianz expects rapid capacity expansion to support the risk transfer needs of the data centre build-out, which is resulting in a call from many in the industry to tap into the capital markets to support this.
There have been comments made by senior industry leaders that capacity may be insufficient to support all the data centre builds expected to come online over the next few years, with the insurance-linked securities market seen as a viable source of incremental reinsurance capacity to support this.
Thomas Lillelund, CEO of Allianz Commercial, commented: “AI is turning the latest generation of data centers from a specialist real estate asset into mission-critical infrastructure.”
“The scale of investment is extraordinary and, as these centers evolve beyond traditional data storage to high-performance compute demands, success will increasingly depend on resilience: access to power, reliable supply chains, robust construction controls, as well as climate-aware site selection and insurance programs that reflect the true accumulation risk. Indeed, comprehensive insurance cover has become a prerequisite for financing many large-scale AI infrastructure projects,” Lillelund continued.
Christian Kolbe, Global Head of Construction Claims at Allianz Commercial, added: “For insurers, the key question is not only the value of the building, but the concentration of value and dependency inside and around it. Power, cooling, batteries, fiber routes, testing and commissioning, and business continuity planning are all part of the same risk picture. Effective risk mitigation must begin early and continue throughout the data center lifecycle. Resilience must be designed in from the earliest planning stage.”
As well as this, Allianz Commercial also noted that the changing scale of data centres is also increasing the potential severity of insurance losses.
The firm’s analysis indicates that industry claims data found that fire is the leading driver of loss severity, accounting for well over 50% of around €700 million ($800 million) in losses examined.
Natural catastrophe events came in second, followed by willful acts, including crime and cyber incidents, and power failure.
Allianz Commercial also added that water damage was the most frequent cause of data center claims, followed by willful acts, fire, and equipment breakdown. While business interruption ranked as the largest contributor to driver of claims severity by line of insurance, highlighting the significant financial impact of operational downtime.
As we’ve been reporting on Artemis, the global data centre build out also presents a clear role, and notable opportunities for insurance-linked securities (ILS) and the capital markets.
This was actively discussed at Artemis’ ILS NYC 2026 conference, where panellists described the need to segment out different exposures from across the data center construction built and life cycle, in order to create opportunities that can be appealing to third-party investors.
We’ve also heard potential surrounding data centre sidecar structures, with specialist Swiss ILS investment manager Euler ILS Partners, highlighting earlier this year how it sees a $1 billion fund opportunity for data centre sidecar risk.
In addition, European headquartered re/insurer Zurich’s recent $1 billion quota share reinsurance arrangement, which the company secured to support its growing business in underwriting data center risks, represents a key example of the reinsurance capital needs of the main data centre insurers.
Read other Artemis articles about the data centre risk transfer opportunity for ILS here.
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