IMA Financial Group Places $4 Billion Property Insurance Tower for AI Data Center
April 22, 2026
IMA Financial Group has completed a $4 billion property insurance placement for a publicly traded artificial intelligence and high-performance computing data center company, in a deal that underscores how the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is reshaping the global insurance market. The placement, structured with a global property carrier, is one of several billion-dollar programs the independent U.S. brokerage has advised on in recent years, reflecting a growing demand for large-ticket property capacity to cover next-generation facilities.
The transaction comes amid a surge in AI-driven construction. According to IDC, AI-centric infrastructure spending reached approximately $90 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, with cumulative spending expected to exceed $900 billion by 2029. Separate industry forecasts suggest total data center capital expenditure could more than double from around $430 billion in 2024 to $1.1 trillion by 2029, as AI transforms computing and power requirements. Against this backdrop, AI and HPC campuses are emerging as a new stress test for insurers, with single locations sometimes carrying $10 billion to $20 billion in replacement cost.
IMA, which specializes in risk management, employee benefits, and investment advisory services, began focusing on data center risk in the early 2000s. Its data center and digital infrastructure practice now serves commercial, hyperscale, and digital asset operators across North America. Patrick Datz, IMA’s digital risk practice leader, said the latest deal reflects two decades of specialization. “This placement reflects two decades of experience in the data center space, bringing that expertise to today’s most advanced facilities,” Datz said. “AI and HPC data centers are among the most complex, capital-intensive assets in the world. They require an advisor who understands the technology and the risks, and can communicate both to a carrier market that is still getting up to speed.”
The placement lands as insurers and brokers test new ways to support AI mega-projects. A series of recent reports has highlighted how traditional property limits are being stretched by campuses valued in the tens of billions of dollars and financed with private equity and private credit. To bridge the gap, carriers and intermediaries are increasingly turning to capital markets, using catastrophe bonds and other insurance-linked securities to bring in hedge funds and private investors to share losses on large data center developments. This points to a more layered risk-transfer stack for AI infrastructure, combining traditional property and business interruption cover with structured facilities, alternative capital, and, in some cases, parametric triggers for events such as power outages or grid failures.
Policy wordings are also under pressure. Market commentary has flagged gray areas around inland storage of GPU inventory, the interaction between property, construction, cyber, and equipment breakdown cover, and the way business interruption responds to AI training workloads that are highly time-sensitive and revenue-intensive. Rachel Nixon, IMA senior vice president and data center co-practice lead, noted that as investment in AI infrastructure accelerates, there is a growing need for insurance solutions that can scale alongside these assets. “As investment in AI infrastructure accelerates, we’re seeing a growing need for insurance solutions that can scale alongside these assets,” Nixon said.
IMA’s data center practice spans property, builders risk, cyber and technology liability, errors and omissions, directors and officers liability, crime, and parametric business interruption. The firm said its advisory approach examines how facilities are constructed, how they generate revenue, and where traditional insurance structures fall short before a single submission reaches the market. This approach reflects a broader trend of brokers and carriers building dedicated digital infrastructure teams that cut across property, cyber, technology E&O, and D&O, as investors push into AI-heavy transactions and long-term power purchase agreements linked to data center growth. As AI-related infrastructure spending heads toward the trillion-dollar mark over the next few years, broker-led facilities and alternative capital structures are likely to play a growing role in how the sector manages accumulation risk and supports the next wave of digital build-out.
Source: insurancebusinessmag
