Zurich Insurance Earnings Boosted by Global Data Center Demand

Zurich Insurance Group AG reported a 13% gain in profit for the first half of 2026 as it saw accelerating demand across all businesses, boosted by global data center and energy infrastructure demand.

Group operating profit rose to $4.77 billion, the insurer said on Thursday. Analysts had estimated $4.73 billon. Net income increased 14% to $3.49 billion from the same period a year earlier.

Zurich Insurance’s key property and casualty unit rose by 12% on a like-for-like basis from the same period a year earlier, with $2.81 billion in operating profit, in line with analyst estimates, and a 92.7% combined ratio.

“At the midpoint of our current cycle, we are ahead of all our targets,” Chief Executive Officer Mario Greco said in a statement.

Operating profit at the Farmers unit came in below estimates at $1.18 billion.

The insurer said that AI demand continues to boost the need for data center infrastructure not just in the U.S. but also across the globe. Global specialty insurance premiums increased 8% to $5.5 billion in the period.

Zurich is in the process of acquiring specialty insurer Beazley Plc. as part of an $11 billion deal that won the approval of the U.K. firm’s board in March. The deal is set to create a global leader in specialty insurance with about $15 billion of gross written premiums and leverage Beazley’s presence in the Lloyd’s of London market.

On Wednesday Beazley reported that its profit halved for the first six months of the year due to softening conditions in the specialty insurance market and larger payouts to customers on the back of increasing geopolitical events and cyber risk exposures.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year and Greco, who took over as Zurich’s CEO in 2016, has signaled he’ll remain in his role until the firm has integrated Beazley.

On Thursday the insurer didn’t provide any additional details on an ongoing enforcement proceeding by the Swiss regulator Finma that has resulted in a sales ban on some policies in Zurich’s Swiss corporate life and pensions unit. The firm has let go of more than 12 employees as a result, Greco last month told Bloomberg.

Photograph: A Zurich Insurance Group AG building in Zurich, Switzerland; photo credit: Alessandro Della Bella/Bloomberg