There’s a new frontrunner on the list of Europe’s most valuable companies. The Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk no longer tops the ranking — that position now belongs to German business software maker SAP.
With a market value of €313 billion, SAP is now worth more than the entire German automotive industry combined.
The company, founded in the 1970s (Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung), doubled its market value in 2024. It was solely responsible for half of the gains in Germany’s DAX index — all thanks to the rise of AI.
SAP Joule
AI assistants are already showing their first returns when it comes to managing business processes. That’s exactly why they developed SAP Joule, which customers can integrate.
And when you have a lot of customers, things move fast. And SAP has a lot of customers. According to the company, 80% of German SMEs use SAP business software.
SAP has long been one of the most valuable companies on European stock exchanges — but it had never claimed the number one spot. That honor previously went to Novo Nordisk, best known for Ozempic, a diabetes drug that skyrocketed in popularity as a miraculous weight-loss treatment, sending the company’s valuation soaring last year.
That surge may have been a bit too steep. Ozempic may have outpaced what the company could deliver. They couldn’t meet demand, and investors began to think the stock price had gone a bit too far. As a result, the share price has dropped by 40%. It’s a game of musical chairs.