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AI data center expansion is driving demand for high-limit insurance
Swiss Re estimates AI-driven data-center insurance premiums could reach up to $90 billion in aggregate through 2030, as new sites can cost more than $20 billion each to build.
Rapid construction of large, complex data centers tied to AI infrastructure is boosting demand for insurance coverage, according to Swiss Re’s Sigma 2026 report, with related spending also linked to energy systems and semiconductor manufacturing.
Swiss Re said AI hyperscaler capital expenditure is expected to reach $750 billion in 2026, and AI-related investment accounted for nearly 40% of US GDP growth during the first three quarters of 2025. The report frames the expansion as a reshaping of commercial risk pools, noting that insuring data centers is complex across construction, including physical perils, subcontractor dependencies, delays, and operational phases.
The insurer pointed to how modern AI data centers are engineered as campus-style projects with dense, interdependent systems that concentrate risk at single sites. After GPUs, tenants, and services are in place, value and operational complexity rise, making continuous availability a key concern and elevating risks such as business interruption, loss of rent, and service disruptions to critical operations.
Swiss Re also highlighted that new AI data centers can cost more than $20 billion to build before equipment is installed, and that lenders increasingly require very large insurance limits to finance projects. The report estimates the insurance premium demand could be up to $90 billion on an aggregated basis until 2030, while describing the need for hundreds of billions of dollars of supporting capital to match that capacity requirement.