Global insurance premiums tied to data centres are projected to climb to $24.2 billion by 2030, driven largely by growing financing needs and the rapid expansion of high-value, AI-powered facilities, according to a recent report by the Swiss Re Institute.
The reinsurer highlighted that as data centres grow in both scale and complexity, insurers face mounting challenges in providing coverage for these critical infrastructure hubs. Modern facilities often concentrate multiple tenants, high-density computing hardware, and shared critical systems such as power, cooling, and fire protection within a single site, increasing the potential for multiple concurrent claims from a single event.
“While construction risk primarily involves creating the asset considering hazards such as physical perils, subcontractor interdependencies, and delays, the operational phase presents far greater challenges,” the report noted.
“Once GPUs, tenants, and services are active, business interruption, loss of rent, and service disruption become critical, with rising insured values further increasing exposure, particularly in catastrophe-prone locations.”
Swiss Re also pointed to emerging operational risks including water damage from cooling failures, vulnerabilities in power continuity, and new fire ignition sources. The insurer cautioned that accumulation transparency is crucial, as large, complex facilities are sometimes insured through separate programmes (covering buildings, equipment, and power plants), which can make tracking capacity and risk concentrations difficult.
According to the report, the next generation of large data centres, especially those powering AI workloads, is still in the early stages of operational experience, making empirical loss data limited. This underscores the need for specialised technical assessment and disciplined accumulation management to ensure insurance programmes remain effective.
“Insurers have deep experience with traditional data centres, but only a few next-generation facilities are fully operational.Underwriting success will increasingly depend on the combination of capacity, technical expertise, and sophisticated risk management strategies,” Swiss Re added.
As data centres continue to underpin global digital economies, the insurance industry faces pressure to innovate and scale its offerings to match the complexity and value of these evolving assets.
