To support economic growth linked to the capex super-cycle, the central constraint is not a shortage of capital. In fact, global re/insurance markets have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to attract capital when returns are sufficient. The greater challenge lies in limits to insurability, which could prevent deploying that capital with confidence.

There is ample industry precedent for overcoming such challenges. Maximum loss challenges that accompanied large offshore energy installations were addressed through improved engineering standards and better risk management. Similarly, nuclear power's emergence in the 1950s posed significant insurability challenges, too, leading to government-backed liability regimes that complemented private insurance capacity while preserving market participation.

While previous waves of industrial development often pushed against one or two dimensions of insurability at a time, the investment boom that has come with the capex super-cycle brings multiple constraints at once. Larger, more interconnected assets increase maximum loss potential while reducing the independence of risks, even as the new technologies being packed into hyperscale data centres and next-generation energy infrastructure bring limited operating and loss histories.

Overcoming these obstacles to insurability will require an array of risk-transfer tools and the risk knowledge necessary to unlock capacity. This means building engineering and underwriting acumen, improving risk modelling capabilities and supporting effective programme design. 

Layered placements, syndication, reinsurance, captives and alternative capital can also help distribute large and complex emerging insurance exposures and improve accumulation management. Reinsurance remains central through this process, providing additional capacity and supporting knowledge transfer and accumulation management for emerging exposures.