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German enterprise software giant SAP is putting skin in the AI game.
Company announced today it has invested directly in three AI startups: Cohere, Anthropic (creator of the Claude 2 LLM service), and Aleph Alpha.
While the company did not specify a dollar amount of its investments, a spokesperson told VentureBeat that “they are a signal of SAP’s commitment to providing valuable generative AI scenarios built into our portfolio of business applications, used every day by the world’s leading
to notice. As we continue to innovate, we are committed to using the best, responsible AI technology and tools on the market.”
The news follows a more precise dollar investment from SAP-backed Sapphire Ventures, which announced a staggering $1 billion pledge to gen AI startups last week.
Why SAP must be a leader in enterprise AI
SAP is the third largest software company in the world in terms of annual revenue, behind only Microsoft and Oracle, and the largest outside the US. used by such notable brands as oil megacorp ExxonMobil and drugmaker Novartis. One of the more recognizable apps is the travel and business expense filing software Agree.
SAP says it already has 26,000 customers around the world using existing SAP Business AI, which predates the investment announcement, showing a need for this type of service.
As such, applying generative AI can have a huge impact on businesses and their customers around the world. While VentureBeat does not offer investment advice, Bank of America analyst Frederic Boulan mentioned SAP one of the top 10 stocks to invest in for generative AI gainsciting that “massive amounts of data about a company’s operations are held in a company’s ERP system, making the software vital in any generative AI integration.”
In other words, SAP already has a wealth of data from all of its many global customers, and should it decide to offer Gen AI services to those customers in conjunction with or through existing SAP offerings, it stands to reason that SAP could have a huge impact on both the customer side and its own bottom line.
SAP customers start AI pilots ‘immediately’
“Pilots and proof of concepts (PoCs) are underway with customers so that any customer interested can get started with SAP immediately,” the SAP spokesperson told VentureBeat in an emailed statement.
As for why SAP chose these three generations of AI startups to invest in over all others: “All three companies – Aleph Alpha (Germany), Anthropic (USA) and Cohere (Canada) are each recognized for their industry leadership, innovation and unique vision for advancing AI and its potential to transform industries. And with our overarching approach to fostering an open ecosystem of Business AI, we believe SAP should provide customers with choice and are proud to invest in each of them.”
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