AI adoption is fuelling unprecedented data centre investment, with approximately $800 billion expected across Asia-Pacific by 2030. Behind that growth lies a digital infrastructure ecosystem spanning more than 14 industries, bringing together stakeholders with distinct interests and risk profiles—and binding them through an increasingly complex network of contracts.
Participants at Marsh’s Datacloud Global Congress 2026 workshop identified contractual risk allocation as the leading board-level concern for data centre projects. The scores below reflect workshop rankings on a 0–5 scale, with higher scores indicating greater urgency or priority.
- Contractual risk allocation (3.29/5)
Ambiguity over roles, responsibilities, liabilities and interfaces across the project supply chain can rapidly lead to disputes, cost overruns and uninsured exposure. This underscores the role of contractual risk allocation as the connective tissue binding the digital infrastructure ecosystem together.
- Power strategy (3.11/5)
Power strategy ranked as the second-most urgent board-level concern, while the misalignment between power-delivery commitments and customer go-live obligations emerged as the most significant contractual mismatch, with a score of 4.44 out of 5. As data centres scale, uncertainty over route-to-power, delivery timelines and climate-related disruption can quickly translate into delays, liquidated damages and substantial financial exposure.
The workshop also identified two contractual mismatches that could create significant exposure if not addressed early:
- Construction completion versus revenue assumptions (1.87/5)
Misalignment between construction completion dates and revenue assumptions can create significant contractual exposure. Tight schedules and multiple interdependent contracts make on-time delivery difficult to structure with certainty. Moreover, Construction All Risks (CAR) insurance typically responds to delay-related losses only where they arise from insured physical damage; it generally does not cover pure delay, revenue shortfalls or liquidated damages where no physical damage has occurred.
- Insurance cover versus contractual liability (0.61/5)
Although insurance cover versus contractual liability ranked lowest, different insurance products address different exposures. CAR insurance generally covers physical damage, while Liquidated Damages Insurance (LDI) may cover specified liquidated damages exposures, subject to policy terms and exclusions. As digital infrastructure projects become more complex, early contract advisory support is essential to clarify liability and align insurance before placement.
How contract risk management connects power, construction, and insurance in data centre projects
Contract risk management is the connective tissue linking power strategy, construction delivery and insurance capacity. A gap in one area—such as unclear risk allocation in a construction contract—can quickly create exposure elsewhere, including an insurance capacity shortfall. Addressing these risks as an integrated system, rather than in isolation, helps keep data centre projects on track and supports their insurability.
Marsh’s Digital Infrastructure Contract Advisory Group helps businesses review contractual obligations and risk allocation across the project lifecycle before insurance is placed. This integrated approach helps align liquidated damages and service-level agreement provisions, extension-of-time rights and liability caps with the wider delivery structure across three connected areas:
1. Power strategy and delivery
Data centre owners and developers should test route-to-power assumptions and resilience requirements early in the design process. Marsh combines risk engineering reviews of critical power, cooling and fire-protection systems with physical climate-risk analysis, and can structure parametric solutions that provide predefined financial support when agreed climate thresholds are triggered.
2. Construction delivery and liquidated damages
Liquidated Damages Insurance can help bridge gaps in traditional CAR cover by transferring certain delay-related liquidated damages exposures to the insurance market. Where appropriate, it may also address specified owner exposures under Service Level Agreements (SLAs) without relying on physical damage as the trigger, subject to policy terms and exclusions.
3. Insurance capacity
Large, fast-moving digital infrastructure projects require sufficient capacity to secure coverage efficiently. Marsh's Nimbus and Stratus solutions address this challenge by providing owners and contractors with dedicated capacity during Construction and Operational phases, respectively. Together, they enable more resilient project delivery and streamlined placement across the full project lifecycle.
Data centre construction involves complex risks that shift between owners, contractors, and future tenants across multiple distinct contracts. This complexity creates a structural imperative for clear risk allocation and early risk transfer—enabling contractors to bid with confidence and projects to remain on track and deliverable.
Why Marsh?
Marsh handles over 100 data centre-related accounts across Asia spanning owners, operators, tenants, landlords, and financiers. This gives us broad reach across Asia’s digital infrastructure ecosystem.
Through Marsh’s construction practice, we have also placed 1,946MW of data centre capacity across 35 projects in Asia, including 15 data centres valued at US$5 billion in construction build.
Get ahead of data centre contract risk today
Spot the gaps between contract wording, insurance protection, and delivery reality before they become costly.
%20-%20768x768.jpeg)
