SAP CEO Christian Klein’s Vision for Cloud and AI Growth

SAP enjoyed strong Q3 performance driven by sustained cloud momentum – and is projecting continued growth in Q4.

The multinational tech giant’s cloud backlog grew to €18.84bn (US$21.9bn), demonstrating continued customer interest in its cloud products. This represents a 23% increase on the same period in 2024 and continues second quarter growth momentum. At constant currencies, growth would be up another 4%.

Cloud revenue rose 22% to €5.29bn (US$6.15bn), reflecting continued broad-based customer demand. 

Within this category, the Cloud ERP Suite – SAP’s core growth engine – expanded 26% to €4.59bn (US$5.33bn), underscoring strong adoption of S/4HANA Cloud and related solutions.

While software license revenue declined sharply, the shift toward subscription-based models lifted the share of more predictable revenue to 87%, reinforcing the company’s recurring revenue strategy. 

Total revenue increased 7% to €9.08bn (US$10.55bn), supported by steady cloud and services growth.

Profitability also improved. IFRS operating profit grew 12% to €2.49bn (US$2.89bn) and non-IFRS operating profit rose 14% to €2.57bn (US$2.98bn), despite around €0.2bn (US$0.23bn) in combined headwinds from tax litigation and workforce transformation costs. 

Margins expanded on both measures, highlighting disciplined cost control and the scalability of the cloud business.

Overall, SAP delivered robust top and bottom-line growth, with earnings per share up 37% (IFRS) and 29% (non-IFRS) – a clear signal that the company’s cloud-led strategy continues to drive both revenue growth and profitability.

Discussing the company’s success, Dominik Asam, SAP’s Chief Finance Officer, says: “Q3’s strong performance underscores the strength and agility of our model. 

“Through disciplined execution and a sharp focus on profitability and cash flow, we’ve maintained forward momentum despite an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop.

“We enter the fourth quarter confident in our ability to deliver on our commitments, as reflected by an improved outlook for operating profit and free cash flow.”

CEO Christian Klein adds: “We are gaining market share as our customers are adopting solutions across the entire Business Suite, including Business Data Cloud and AI at accelerated pace. 

SAP’s strategies

In January 2024, SAP announced a company-wide transformation and restructuring programme to enhance scalability, drive efficiencies through AI and focus on key growth areas such as Business AI. 

At the time, SAP said the restructuring would underpin its updated 2025 ambitions, targeting a non-IFRS operating profit of about €10bn (US$11.64bn) and free cash flow of €8bn (US$9.31bn) – forming part of a wider strategy to improve efficiency and support long-term, scalable growth.

Elsewhere, back in May 2023, SAP announced a share repurchase programme with a total volume of €5bn (US$5.82bn), which was completed on 13 August 2025.

The organisation says it has repurchased a total of 26,010,591 shares at an average price of €188.24 (US$219.13), resulting in a purchased volume of approximately €3.2bn (US$3.72bn).

SAP’s share repurchase programme isn’t just a financial manoeuvre; it ties directly into a broader strategic repositioning announced in 2020, from traditional enterprise software vendor to high-margin, cloud-based subscription business.

Business highlights 

In its Q3 results, SAP puts its successes down to customers across the globe joining its “RISE with SAP” journey to drive end-to-end business transformations.

These customers, among many, include:

• Alphabet
• ANA HOLDINGS
• BarmeniaGothaer
• Computacenter
• Jack Wolfskin
• DXC Technology
• Japan Aviation Electronics Industry 
• The Magnum Ice Cream Company 

In September, SAP and OpenAI announced the launch of OpenAI for Germany. SAP says the partnership will bring its enterprise applications expertise and OpenAI’s leading AI technology to Germany’s public sector.

Elsewhere, SAP and Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently unveiled plans to make SAP’s Sovereign Cloud capabilities available on the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, an independent cloud for Europe backed by a planned €7.8bn (US$9.1bn) investment from Amazon.

Christian continues: “We are gaining market share as our customers are adopting solutions across the entire Business Suite, including Business Data Cloud and AI at accelerated pace.

“For Q4 we are executing against a strong pipeline – which gives us confidence in our accelerating total revenue growth ambition for 2026.”

In September, SAP and OpenAI announced the launch of OpenAI for Germany. SAP says the partnership will bring its enterprise applications expertise and OpenAI’s leading AI technology to Germany’s public sector.

Elsewhere, SAP and Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently unveiled plans to make SAP’s Sovereign Cloud capabilities available on the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, an independent cloud for Europe backed by a planned €7.8bn (US$9.1bn) investment from Amazon.

Christian continues: “We are gaining market share as our customers are adopting solutions across the entire Business Suite, including Business Data Cloud and AI at accelerated pace.

“For Q4 we are executing against a strong pipeline – which gives us confidence in our accelerating total revenue growth ambition for 2026.”