SAP’s M&A Blitz and AI Push Can’t Lift a Stock Stuck at a 52-Week Low

SAP pours billions into enterprise AI with acquisitions and partnerships, but stock falls 32% YTD as investors doubt near-term returns and cloud monetization.

The software giant is spending heavily to build out its enterprise AI stack, but investors remain fixated on near-term returns. SAP has announced a minority investment of €60 million in n8n, a German workflow-automation startup now valued at roughly $5.2 billion, as part of a broader push to embed autonomous agents into its cloud ecosystem. The move follows the completion of the Reltio acquisition for master data management, and comes alongside the planned purchases of data platform Dremio (expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approval) and Prior Labs, a specialist in tabular foundation models.

At the same time, SAP is expanding its AI partnerships. The Claude models from Anthropic are being integrated into the SAP Business AI Hub, and the company is deepening its collaboration with NVIDIA to supply the infrastructure for enterprise agents. The vision, presented at the Sapphire conference in Orlando, revolves around an “autonomous enterprise” where AI agents handle complex workflows in finance, HR, and supply chains with minimal human intervention.

Yet none of that has resonated with the market. The stock closed at €138.00 yesterday, marking a new 52-week low. That leaves it down nearly 32% from the start of the year and roughly 30% below its 200-day moving average. Over a 12-month horizon, the decline widens to about 47%, reflecting deep skepticism about how quickly the legacy software model can be transformed before disruption from nimbler rivals takes hold.

The first-quarter results, released earlier, offered little to fuel a rally. Currency-adjusted cloud revenue climbed 27% to just under €6 billion, while the cloud order backlog grew 25% to €21.9 billion. Total quarterly revenue rose 6% to €9.56 billion, and adjusted earnings per share improved to €1.66. Management points to rising demand for business AI as the main driver, but the numbers have not been enough to calm nerves about monetization timelines and a cloudy macroeconomic backdrop.

For the full year, SAP is sticking to its targets: cloud revenue between €25.8 billion and €26.2 billion, and a non-IFRS operating profit of up to €12.3 billion. The next major checkpoint comes on July 23, 2026, when second-quarter figures are due. By then, investors will be looking for signs that the acquisition spree — from n8n and Reltio to Dremio and Prior Labs — is already translating into measurable acceleration in cloud growth.