The rapid global build-out of data centres is a great investment opportunity that also comes with headwinds, but global insurer Chubb’s capabilities in this area are extremely broad, Evan Greenberg, CEO, highlighted during the company’s recent earnings call.
Greenberg emphasised that Chubb has “doubled down” on its internal structure to provide a comprehensive suit of coverage tailored to the complex lifecycle of a data centre.
The executive highlighted Chubb’s ability to provide end-to-end insurance solutions on a global scale. The company’s involvement spans from the initial ground-breaking to the long-term operation of these facilities.
“This is a global opportunity where our capabilities are extremely broad,” Greenberg stated. “We’re in a rare group when it comes to capability. Builders risk, operations in terms of property. We also do engineering. We have a large capacity, and others take shares behind us.”
The CEO detailed an expansive list of exposures Chubb currently covers for data centre developers.
He said: “Chubb covers for Marine and all of the related exposures around that. Surety, liability, professional lines when it comes to design of data centres. We are one of the few that writes insurance around the broad variety of exposures globally, that those who were constructing data centres confront.
“On the utility and energy side, we are a major writer, and no one is building a major data centre without the energy and utility dimension of this. And we can seamlessly transition to that in coverage as well.”
Despite the surge in project announcements, Greenberg advises to remain cautious, warning against becoming “overly breathless” about the pace of development.
“The one thing I would say about this right now, is that there’s a lot of projects announced, how much of this actually gets built and over what period of time, remains a question,” Greenberg stated.
“There are headwinds around availability and affordability of energy to power data centres. And that is a rising and growing problem. How fast does that get addressed? For each data centre it’s a different answer depending on where they’re located.
He concluded: “There’s more pushback on where data centres will be built. There is the question of labour, and is there labour available for the construction of data centres. Supply, and the supply chains and the cost of supply are questions that hang out there. So, there’s a lot announced, we’re all focused on it, but I’d be careful not to be overly breathless about this.”
