SAP Deepens Commitment to AI Innovation through Investments in Leading Generative AI Companies Aleph Alpha, Anthropic, and Cohere

SAP Deepens Commitment to AI Innovation through Investments in Leading Generative AI Companies Aleph Alpha, Anthropic, and Cohere

(IN BRIEF) SAP has announced strategic direct investments in three generative AI companies, namely Aleph Alpha GmbH, Anthropic PBC, and Cohere. These investments align with SAP’s open ecosystem approach to AI and complement their $1+ billion commitment to invest in AI-powered enterprise technology startups through Sapphire Ventures. SAP aims to create an enterprise AI ecosystem that enhances their business applications suite and empowers customers. The company’s AI strategy includes partnerships with Microsoft, Google Cloud, and IBM, along with integrating startups into their ecosystem through the SAP.iO Foundries program. The investments highlight SAP’s commitment to generative AI and responsible development. Sapphire Ventures, supported by SAP, has committed over $1 billion to fund AI-powered enterprise technology startups.

(PRESS RELEASE) WALLDORF, 18-Jul-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced its continued commitment to delivering relevant, reliable, and responsible Business AI by making strategic direct investments in three leading generative AI companies.

Generative AI Investments Reinforce SAP’s Open Enterprise AI Ecosystem Strategy for the Future
SAP’s investments in Aleph Alpha GmbH, Anthropic PBC, and Cohere align with its open ecosystem approach to AI, aiming to embed AI technology across the SAP portfolio. These investments build upon the series of AI partnerships and enterprise use cases announced in May, and they complement the recent announcement by Sapphire Ventures LLC, committing over $1 billion to invest in AI-powered enterprise technology startups.

Sebastian Steinhaeuser, Chief Strategy Officer at SAP SE, stated, “We are at a pivotal moment, where generative AI is poised to fundamentally transform business operations. SAP is committed to creating an enterprise AI ecosystem that complements our world-class business applications suite and empowers our customers to unlock their full potential.”

SAP’s AI Approach — Designed for Business
SAP delivers Business AI that is relevant, reliable, and responsible. The SAP Business AI portfolio is relevant because it is already embedded in the SAP product portfolio, with over 26,000 customers using SAP Business AI in various scenarios and partner solutions. It is relevant because it is available from day one and integrated into mission-critical business processes. SAP’s Business AI is reliable due to its foundation built on decades of extensive business data and relevant content. Moreover, it is responsible, delivered with the highest standards of security, privacy, compliance, and ethics. This AI foundation is powered by the SAP Business Technology Platform, enabling innovation and Business AI delivery through SAP’s AI investments and an open ecosystem of AI partners.

SAP’s AI strategy encompasses direct investments, increased research and development for additional AI use cases, and strategic partnerships with third-party organizations like Microsoft, Google Cloud, and IBM, as announced in May. With the latest investments, SAP reinforces its commitment to generative AI, focusing on responsible development to enhance business operations. Furthermore, SAP accelerates AI innovation by integrating startups into its partner ecosystem through the SAP.iO Foundries program, an in-house accelerator. Sapphire Ventures, a software venture capital firm supported by SAP, has dedicated over $1 billion to fund AI-powered enterprise technology startups.

Investment in Generative AI Innovators
Aleph Alpha GmbH, Anthropic PBC, and Cohere are market leaders in generative AI, each with unique potential to transform entire industries.

Aleph Alpha GmbH, based in Germany, offers a sovereign, full-stack, generative AI solution focused on complex enterprise use cases. It was the first company to provide multimodal, next-generation large language models with state-of-the-art results trained on several European languages. Aleph Alpha emphasizes interoperability, data privacy, and security, providing AI as a service, multi-cloud, and on-premise installation options. SAP previously announced Aleph Alpha as an SAP partner participating in the SAP PartnerEdge program on the “Build” track.

Anthropic PBC, based in San Francisco, is an AI safety and research company developing AI systems that are helpful, honest, and harmless. Anthropic’s AI assistant, Claude, employs a “constitutional” approach, interacting with users based on a set of principles designed for reliability and safety. Claude assists users with a range of tasks, including answer generation, coding, workflow automation, and text processing such as editing, rewriting, summarizing, and classifying. Anthropic focuses on ensuring that technology like Claude benefits society.

Cohere, headquartered in San Francisco and Toronto with a key research center in London, is a leading enterprise AI company. It offers world-class technology tailored to business needs, prioritizing ease of use, accessibility, security, and data privacy. Cohere’s platform provides a more intuitive way to generate, search, and summarize information. It is cloud-agnostic, offering companies choice in cloud providers, accessible through API as a managed service, and can be deployed on virtual private clouds or on-premise to align with companies’ data locations.

Sapphire Ventures

SAP-backed Sapphire Ventures LLC is a global software venture capital firm that partners with visionary teams and venture funds to build consequential companies. As a limited partner in Sapphire Ventures, SAP customers gain early access to innovations from the startup ecosystem. Last week, Sapphire Ventures announced a commitment of over $1 billion to invest in the next generation of AI-powered enterprise technology startups, in addition to existing investments in AI-powered enterprise startups such as Clari Inc., DataRobot Inc., Moveworks, and ThoughtSpot Inc.

For more information, visit the SAP News Center and follow SAP on Twitter at @SAPNews.

About SAP

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, SAP helps companies of all sizes and in all industries perform at their best, with SAP customers generating 87% of total global commerce. Through machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies, SAP transforms customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP provides deep business insight and fosters collaboration to stay ahead of the competition. The company simplifies technology adoption, allowing companies to consume software in their preferred way without disruption. SAP’s end-to-end suite of applications and services empowers business and public customers across 25 industries worldwide to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improves people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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SOURCE: SAP