Atrium says top 20 chipmakers now hold $529bn of plant and stock, and insured values may lag

Property insurers of semiconductor makers may be covering plants and stock at values well below what is now at risk. Nick Leppard, Atrium's head of property direct and facultative, warned that cover which has not kept up with the growth in facilities and inventory could leave manufacturers short, Insurance Business reported on 12 October. He named earthquake as a particular worry, since specialist production equipment is difficult to replace.

The warning rests on Atrium's review of the 20 largest chipmakers. Together they now carry $529bn of property, plant and equipment (PP&E) and inventories. In the latest year PP&E grew 12% to $411bn, from $368bn, while inventories grew 14% to $118bn, from $104bn. Measured over a decade, property assets are up 284% from $107bn and inventories up 338% from $27bn. Atrium connects the build-up to strong demand, above all from data centres. In Leppard's words, the sector has "a huge amount of capital tied up in highly specialized facilities."

Past losses show how large a single event can be. Atrium cited a 2025 earthquake that left a Taiwanese manufacturer $161m out of pocket even after insurance recoveries, and a 2013 smoke and soot loss of about $860m at a Korean chipmaker. The article also reports that, in Allianz Commercial's five-year data, the two most expensive events outside natural catastrophes were both fires at chip plants, and that Allianz sees underinsurance where insured values are not reviewed regularly.

The practical advice in the article is the publication's own, not Atrium's. Insurance Business said the figures support revisiting declared values, and suggested brokers check whether policies use reporting clauses or declaration-adjustable cover. It added that long lead times for replacement equipment make business interruption indemnity periods critical, and that businesses relying on a key supplier's plant carry contingent exposure that is often harder to quantify and insure.