Data centres: emerging risks and the strategic role of insurance

The rapid development of AI, cloud computing and digital services is accelerating demand for data centres across Europe, including Poland. JLL estimates that the global data centre market may continue growing at between 15% and 20% annually through 2027, driven primarily by AI infrastructure and hyperscale cloud demand (JLL, 2025[1]). Poland is emerging as one of Central Europe’s fastest-growing data centre markets. According to market forecasts, the Polish data centre construction market could grow from around $1.16 billion in 2025 to $3.65 billion by 2031 (Mordor Intelligence, 2025[2]).

For the real estate and construction sector, this creates major investment opportunities. However, data centres should not be viewed as conventional commercial real estate assets. They represent a unique category of infrastructure where operational continuity is critical and where a single incident can generate substantial financial losses within minutes.

In this context, insurance is dynamically evolving beyond a purely transactional or financing requirement into a strategic component of project delivery, investor confidence and long-term operational resilience. As a result, early collaboration among developers, contractors, brokers, and insurers is becoming increasingly important throughout the construction and operational lifecycle of these assets. 

Data centres as a unique risk profile
Unlike traditional office or logistics developments, data centres depend on the uninterrupted interaction of several highly specialised systems, including power supply, cooling infrastructure, connectivity and cybersecurity. Failure in one area can quickly affect the entire facility. In practice, this means that risk exposure extends beyond physical damage and includes operational disruption, business interruption and liability risks.

Data centres also involve exceptionally high asset concentration. Large-scale facilities combine expensive technical infrastructure, sensitive equipment and mission-critical operations within a single location. From an insurance perspective, this creates a significantly different risk profile compared with standard commercial property developments. 

Key risk areas across the lifecycle
Construction risks
Data centre construction involves high capital expenditure, complex engineering and the installation of sensitive technical equipment. Delays may have significant financial consequences, particularly where facilities are pre-let to hyperscale tenants or cloud providers. In this context, Delay in Start-Up (DSU) insurance — protecting against financial losses resulting from delays following insured damage — has become an important risk management tool. Careful coordination between construction, fit-out and commissioning phases is also essential to avoid gaps in insurance coverage.  

Physical and environmental risks
Data centres consume large amounts of electricity and generate substantial heat, making cooling systems critical to continuous operation. According to the International Energy Agency, electricity demand from data centres, AI and cryptocurrency could double by 2026 (IEA, 2024).

As facilities increasingly rely on advanced cooling and water management systems, water damage has become one of the most significant risks for insurers, second only to fire in many markets.   Fire remains a major concern due to the concentration of high-value equipment and the growing use of lithium-ion batteries and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). Climate-related exposures — including flooding, extreme weather and heat stress — are also becoming increasingly important, prompting insurers to place greater emphasis on resilience and mitigation measures.

Operational and business interruption risks
Operational disruption is often more financially significant than physical damage itself. Even short periods of downtime may result in contractual penalties under service-level agreements (SLAs), reputational damage and revenue loss for both operators and tenants.

At the same time, supply chain disruption and long lead times for critical equipment continue to affect project delivery and operational resilience, particularly amid geopolitical uncertainty and growing global demand.

Accumulation and systemic risk
Swiss Re (2026)[3] notes that large hyperscale data centres increasingly concentrate billions of dollars of physical assets, tenants and interconnected technical systems within a single site, creating complex accumulation exposure for insurers and reinsurers. This concentration of value, combined with dependencies on power, cooling and digital connectivity, is reshaping insurers’ approaches across the sector. Cybersecurity is also becoming part of this broader systemic risk landscape as digital infrastructure grows increasingly interconnected.

The strategic role of insurance
Against this background, insurance should not be viewed solely as a financing requirement or contractual obligation. Increasingly, it plays a strategic role in enabling projects to proceed, securing investor confidence and supporting long-term operational resilience.

Well-structured insurance programmes can help protect capital investment, improve project bankability and support more effective risk governance throughout the asset lifecycle. In practice, insurers are becoming more closely involved in evaluating project design, resilience measures and operational planning at increasingly early stages of development.

The role of brokers and insurers
This changing risk landscape is also transforming the role of brokers and insurers. In the data centre sector, insurance placement is becoming more integrated with technical risk assessment, construction planning and operational resilience.

At Howden Polska, we are increasingly supporting clients involved in data centre and critical infrastructure projects, particularly where insurance solutions must be aligned with complex construction timelines, operational resilience requirements and evolving technology exposures. This includes coordinating dialogue between investors, lenders, contractors and insurers at early stages of project development, when risk allocation and programme structure can materially influence project bankability and long-term insurability.

Early engagement between developers, contractors, insurers and brokers is particularly important where projects involve new technologies, renewable energy integration or modern methods of construction. Specialist brokers increasingly support clients not only in transferring risk, but also in structuring insurance programmes, coordinating market capacity and facilitating dialogue between technical and financial stakeholders. 

Conclusion
Data centre growth creates substantial opportunities for the real estate and construction sectors, particularly in rapidly developing markets such as Poland. However, these projects also introduce increasingly complex and interconnected risks that differ significantly from traditional commercial real estate exposures.

Effective risk transfer, supported by specialist insurance expertise and early-stage risk management, is therefore becoming an essential component of successful project delivery and long-term operational stability. In the context of data centres, insurance should no longer be treated as a purely transactional purchase, but rather as a strategic component of modern infrastructure risk management.

You can find more information about Howden Poland here  https://www.howdengroup.com/pl-pl

[1] JLL (2025) 2025 Global Data Center Outlook: Shaping Tomorrow’s Digital Infrastructure. Available at: https://www.jll.com/en-us/newsroom/global-data-center-demand-surges-despite-supply-and-power-constraints (Accessed: 5 May 2026).

[2] Mordor Intelligence (2025) Poland Data Center Construction Market – Growth, Trends, Forecasts (2025–2031). Available at: https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/poland-data-center-construction-market (Accessed: 5 May 2026).

[3] Swiss Re Institute (2026) Insuring AI: data centre risks and the future of underwriting. Available at: sigma insights 07/2026: Insuring AI: data centre value accumulation risks | Swiss Re (Accessed: 5 May 2026).