Marsh to bring alternative capital into data centre risks with $10bn Stratus exchange

Broker Marsh is aiming to bring alternative sources of insurance and reinsurance capital into the digital infrastructure risk transfer sector, through the launch of a $10 billion property insurance exchange named Stratus.

Stratus offers access up to $10 billion in property insurance capacity on a single-placement basis, Marsh explained, with this targeted at the complex operational risks of digital infrastructure projects, including data centers and related critical support systems.

Capacity will be arranged through the global property risk transfer market for the global exposures of US-domiciled companies, with Stratus designed as an insurance exchange where capacity providers can evaluate risks and express their appetite for underwriting them.

Marsh said that it already has 30 traditional and alternative capital provider participants lined up to evaluate each risk individually through Stratus, to identify the most appropriate support for each placement.

“This more structured trading environment enables providers to better assess, quantify, and diversify risk and address aggregation concerns, which arise during the operational phase of digital infrastructure projects,” the broker said.

Insurer Allianz Commercial had recently projected that the global data centre insurance market will grow from currently around US $11 billion to more than $24 billion by 2030.

With numerous senior industry leaders commenting that capacity may be insufficient to support all the data centre builds expected to come online over the next few years, the insurance-linked securities market is seen as a viable source of incremental reinsurance capacity to support this.

Marsh is clearly seeking to bring alternative and third-party capital in to help fill this gap through this new Stratus insurance exchange.

Unlocking additional risk capacity from capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors is one way to ensure the global insurance industry can meet the risk transfer needs of the digital infrastructure build-out.

A panel discussion at our upcoming Artemis London 2026 conference on Sept 1st will explore the data centre risk opportunity for the ILS market. Register to join us.

Stratus will also make use of Marsh’s advanced data and analytics and advisory services, so the broker can help its clients to efficiently source customised property insurance coverage for the unique needs of these large facilities, as their digital infrastructure assets move towards operation.

“As large digital infrastructure projects shift from construction to operation, the associated risks become larger and more complex, driven by multi-billion-dollar campuses, self-generating power systems, and emerging technologies used in processing units and critical equipment,” explained Joe Macejak, US Property Digital Infrastructure Leader, Marsh Risk.

“By combining Marsh’s engineering data and analytics, risk consulting capabilities, and access to the global (re)insurance and capital markets, Stratus is designed to improve the quality and efficiency of operational digital infrastructure property placements and help clients secure the protection they need to support growth at scale.”

Stratus is designed to work alongside Marsh’s Nimbus facility for data center risks, with the two able to be utilised separately or together to support capacity needs of projects.

The plan for Stratus is to start with digital infrastructure property risks first, but then evolve the exchange to also support other line of business capacity needs, such as inland marine, cyber, and casualty, Marsh said.

Read other Artemis articles about the data centre risk transfer opportunity for ILS here.