SAP’s Daring Bet: Curb Travel, Trim 10,000 Roles, and Unleash 200 AI Agents to Reverse a 46% Slide

SAP shares tumble 46% from highs amid massive AI costs. CEO Klein's 'Project Fuji' cuts 10,000 jobs, retools workforce, but market remains skeptical.

The tension at SAP is palpable. Europe’s largest software maker has seen its shares slide 31% since January and an eye-watering 46% from their 52-week high, leaving the stock at €139.64 — a stone’s throw away from last month’s trough of €130.80. While the cloud business is humming along with currency-adjusted revenue growth of 27% in the first quarter, investors are fixated on the enormous costs of the company’s pivot to artificial intelligence. CEO Christian Klein is now fighting back with a plan that is equal parts cost surgery and technological gamble: “Project Fuji.”

Under the codename Project Fuji, Klein has taken direct control of the company’s AI development and is imposing a sweeping austerity regime. Non-essential business travel is being slashed, and new hiring will be almost exclusively focused on AI-core roles. The most dramatic measure: the elimination of up to 10,000 positions. Crucially, SAP insists this is not a conventional layoff round. The company plans to achieve the reduction through attrition and the retraining of existing staff into new roles. The goal is to protect operating margins while simultaneously pouring resources into a more aggressive AI roadmap.

“I’m not sure that in two or three years anyone will still be programming software,” Klein told the New York Times in an interview, forecasting a “very, very different” workforce. That worldview underpins the company’s shift away from classic license deals toward a consumption-based model called “AI Units.” The new pricing structure is part of the Autonomous Suite, a platform that SAP hopes will eventually accommodate more than 200 specialized AI agents designed to deliver measurable productivity gains for customers.

Yet the market remains deeply skeptical. The stock is trading 23% below its 200-day moving average — a bearish technical signal that leaves the shares vulnerable to fresh selling pressure. The relative strength index sits at 46.9, a neutral reading that offers little directional conviction. And the company’s failed bid for industrial-AI specialist Cognite, which was snapped up by Schneider Electric in a multi-billion-dollar deal, has added to the perception that SAP is struggling to keep pace both organically and inorganically.

The bull case rests on operational momentum. Cloud order backlog grew 25% on a currency-adjusted basis, and the migration to S/4HANA continues to draw strong demand. The operating margin hit 30% in the first quarter — the highest in thirteen quarters. A share buyback program worth roughly €2.6 billion, running through the end of July, provides a near-term floor. Technical analysts see the €130.80 area as a potential support level that could anchor a summer consolidation.

But the bears argue that the very cost cuts designed to protect margins underscore the challenge. Analysts have already trimmed their expectations for the gross margin in the second half of 2026 to 72.8%, as heavy investments in external partnerships and computing infrastructure eat into profitability. The chilling effect of Oracle’s massive spending announcements has also weighed on the entire enterprise-software peer group.

All eyes are now on July 23, 2026, when SAP reports second-quarter earnings. The company’s full-year operating profit guidance of €11.9 billion to €12.3 billion is the stated target, but the real test is whether Klein can demonstrate that the cost-cutting and AI ramp are compatible. Any deviation from that corridor — or any sign that the 10,000-role reduction is causing disruption rather than efficiency — could trigger another leg down. For a stock that has already surrendered nearly half its value, the margin for error is razor thin.