SAP recorded quarterly revenue above €10 billion for the first time as cloud adoption and demand for AI-enabled enterprise systems strengthened its third-quarter performance. Current cloud backlog increased 26% at constant currency to €24.14 billion, exceeding market expectations.
Cloud revenue rose 26% to €6.67 billion. Adjusted operating profit increased 18% to €3.03 billion, while the operating margin expanded to 29.5% from 28.3% a year earlier. Free cash flow climbed 36% to €1.72 billion.
The company moved its 2026 revenue expectations towards the upper end of its existing guidance. Subscription revenue is now expected near the top of the €25.8 billion to €26.2 billion range, representing growth of between 23% and 25%. Including its declining traditional software-licence business, SAP expects full-year revenue of €36.3 billion to €36.8 billion, an increase of 12% to 13%.
SAP retained its constant-currency operating-profit forecast of between €11.8 billion and €12.2 billion. The company had reduced that range in July to account for recent acquisitions.
Chief executive Christian Klein identified AI as the main factor encouraging customers to move their business systems to the cloud. Customers are signing subscription contracts to obtain access to Joule, SAP’s AI assistant platform, which can connect with more than 70 AI models. SAP is not committing its platform to a single preferred model, allowing enterprises to work with different underlying technologies.
The company’s order book is closely monitored because SAP software is widely used for finance, human resources, procurement, payroll and other core processes at large enterprises. Its backlog consequently provides a broader indicator of corporate technology spending and the pace of cloud migration.
New cloud customers during the quarter included AstraZeneca and Infineon. SAP also said some customers that had previously experienced financial distress had resumed cloud spending.
Chief financial officer Dominik Asam said fourth-quarter execution would determine where the company finishes within its full-year guidance, citing higher oil prices and US interest rates as factors affecting the wider economic environment.
