DATASORA

Gallagher Re bundled AI liability, data-center, cyber, and digital risk engineering into a single practice as brokers industrialize tech-risk placement.

• The practice sits inside Gallagher Re, not only retail — treaty and facultative clients are in scope.
• Data-center property and AI liability are colliding with traditional CAT and casualty panels.
• Follows Gallagher’s AssuredPartners digestion and its climb to the world’s third-largest broker.

Desk note — Sompo’s specialty and Aspen cyber / management-liability capabilities need a clear answer when Gallagher Re shops these risks in the fall.

The global data-center insurance market is about $11bn today and projected past $24bn by 2030. Fire drives severity — more than half of ~$800m of studied losses. Demand is stretching from builders risk into BI, power, and cyber-physical.

• Swiss Re Institute is the $11bn → $24bn source tape.
• Water damage is the frequency story; fire is the severity story.
• Integrated construction-to-operate covers at hyperscale values are still scarce.

Desk note — New white space, not a rate story yet. Sompo’s construction, property, energy, and cyber desks will see the same submission. The question is who can authorize the whole stack.

IMA’s Q2 2026 tape: commercial property led the decline at −5.5% as three-quarters of carriers added capacity. Cyber −3.5%. D&O −2.1%, the eighth consecutive down quarter. Workers’ compensation also printed decreases.

• Property loss ratio improved to 85% YE 2025 even after California wildfires and SCS.
• Cyber threat activity is intensifying — identity-based attacks, BEC, third-party — while rates still fall.
• Excess D&O capacity remains abundant; buyers are expanding limits.

Desk note — This is the oversupply map. Non-CAT property, cyber, and public D&O are crowded. The money is in the classes that did not get this capital: auto, excess construction casualty, older property.

Deloitte’s 2026 insurance M&A outlook flags specialty property and casualty, excess and surplus, and managing general agents as the P&C sleeves still drawing private capital — with brokerage M&A shifting from land-grab to digestion.

• Underwriting flexibility and fee-based MGA economics remain the pitch.
• Broker buyers are integrating, simplifying, and doing tuck-ins rather than new platforms.
• Selectivity on underwriting quality is the gating item, not dry powder.

Desk note — Sompo does not need to outbid PE for MGAs. It needs to be the capacity those MGAs cannot replace — especially in construction casualty and specialty property.

Ground-up non-CAT builders risk is stable to softening (−5% to +10%). Primary OCIP/CCIP is orderly; umbrella and excess liability still prints +5% to +30% depending on account and attachment.

• Gallagher has reported single-layer builders-risk decreases of 5–7% in non-CAT zones.
• Inland marine stays competitive even for contractors with some adverse loss history.
• CAT-exposed and high-hazard projects do not get the same relief.

Desk note — Sompo can be relevant on non-CAT builders risk and wrap primary. The money — and the differentiation — is still in excess casualty, delay-in-start, and CAT-adjacent project property.

CRC’s 2026 casualty note calls the E&S casualty market fragmented, not uniformly hard. Softening property has released capital into casualty, but excess auto keeps contracting and HNOA stays difficult.

• Overall casualty capacity is ample; deployment is uneven by class and account.
• Excess auto is still a layered, shrinking market.
• Strong casualty results are attracting investor interest — not uniformly into the painful classes.

Desk note — Whitespace is not ‘casualty.’ It is auto, low-attach construction excess, and nuclear-verdict venues. Everything else is starting to see the property-capital overflow.

The global data-center insurance market is about $11bn today and projected past $24bn by 2030. Fire drives severity — more than half of ~$800m of studied losses. Demand is stretching from builders risk into BI, power, and cyber-physical.

• Swiss Re Institute is the $11bn → $24bn source tape.
• Water damage is the frequency story; fire is the severity story.
• Integrated construction-to-operate covers at hyperscale values are still scarce.

Desk note — New white space, not a rate story yet. Sompo’s construction, property, energy, and cyber desks will see the same submission. The question is who can authorize the whole stack.

IMA’s Q2 2026 tape: commercial property led the decline at −5.5% as three-quarters of carriers added capacity. Cyber −3.5%. D&O −2.1%, the eighth consecutive down quarter. Workers’ compensation also printed decreases.

• Property loss ratio improved to 85% YE 2025 even after California wildfires and SCS.
• Cyber threat activity is intensifying — identity-based attacks, BEC, third-party — while rates still fall.
• Excess D&O capacity remains abundant; buyers are expanding limits.

Desk note — This is the oversupply map. Non-CAT property, cyber, and public D&O are crowded. The money is in the classes that did not get this capital: auto, excess construction casualty, older property.

Sompo International signed a definitive agreement to buy Service Insurance Companies, a 1982-founded monoline WC specialist focused on SMEs and the general-agent channel. Terms undisclosed; close subject to regulatory approval.

• Chris Sparro: the deal creates a flagship for Sompo’s U.S. workers’ compensation franchise.
• Brad Davis stays on to run the business and extend it from monoline WC into a diversified commercial platform.
• Advisors: Guy Carpenter Capital & Advisory (Sompo) and Howden Capital Markets & Advisory (Service).

Desk note — This is the SME / GA distribution play that sits next to Aspen’s specialty and capital-markets stack. Construction accounts and wrap-ups will feel it in 2027 renewals if the close lands.

Effective tariff rates on construction goods hit a 40-year high of 25–30% in 2025, with steel and aluminum as high as 50%. Policies written on last year’s values are already underinsured.

• Deloitte’s 2026 E&C outlook is the source tape brokers are using in renewal meetings.
• Labor gaps plus material inflation push completed-value calculations through the year.
• More capacity entered builders risk, which is why non-CAT pricing loosened even as values rose.

Desk note — Underinsurance is a claims event waiting. Sompo construction underwriters should be forcing mid-term value endorsements, not waiting for the next bound layer.

Ground-up non-CAT builders risk is stable to softening (−5% to +10%). Primary OCIP/CCIP is orderly; umbrella and excess liability still prints +5% to +30% depending on account and attachment.

• Gallagher has reported single-layer builders-risk decreases of 5–7% in non-CAT zones.
• Inland marine stays competitive even for contractors with some adverse loss history.
• CAT-exposed and high-hazard projects do not get the same relief.

Desk note — Sompo can be relevant on non-CAT builders risk and wrap primary. The money — and the differentiation — is still in excess casualty, delay-in-start, and CAT-adjacent project property.

2026 commercial outlooks still put auto at +8% to +15% on driver shortage, BI severity, and nuclear verdicts. Cyber is forecast −5% to +10% — the residual of a soft market meeting AI-related claims.

• Auto is a capacity and severity problem, not a pricing-cycle leftover.
• Cyber’s range straddles zero; the center of gravity is still negative.
• D&O private/nonprofit is roughly −5% to +5% — orderly, not a hard market.

Desk note — If you need a one-line whitespace map: auto in, cyber out. Construction excess sits with auto. Public D&O sits with cyber.