In this Risk Capital Insight episode of the On Aon podcast, Caroline St. Clair and Jon Chapman discuss how the next generation of digital infrastructure is changing how leaders think about risk, capital and long-term growth. As AI accelerates demand for data centers, organizations are pursuing larger, more capital-intensive projects with greater interdependencies across power, construction and operations.

The conversation explores why risk strategy must be embedded from the outset, how insurability influences investment decisions and what separates the organizations that can scale with confidence from those that face constraints later in the project lifecycle. Leaders will gain practical insights into aligning risk, capital and resilience to support sustainable growth and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving market.

Key Takeaways:    

Experts in this episode:     

Key Moments:    

(01:15) The AI infrastructure boom and how data center investment, power density and project scale are creating new concentrations of risk unlike anything the insurance market has previously experienced.

(06:15) What's at stake when organizations fail to consider insurability early — including the impact on financing, campus design, site selection and long-term resilience.

(16:50) Why digital infrastructure leaders should adopt a lifecycle approach to risk, connecting construction and operations into a single strategy for risk transfer and resilience. 

Soundbites:    

Caroline St. Clair:   

“Risk is no longer something you transfer after a project's been created. It's something that's determined very early in the process in the way you design, power and even configure your assets. And the people that get these choices right unlock capital, insurability and resilience. And if you get them wrong, it can be very difficult to fix down the line."

Jon Chapman:   

“The organizations that win in the next decade won't just be the ones that build the biggest campuses. They'll be the ones that are credible under stress for insurers, lenders, customers, regulators and society.”