Strategy

SAP Bets Big on AI, Invests in n8n at a $5.2 Billion Valuation

co-written by newsrooms.ai12. May 2026, 15:27

The Walldorf-based software giant SAP is advancing its AI strategy with a series of investments and partnerships. At the center is a strategic investment in the Berlin-based automation startup n8n, which has thereby risen to become Germany’s most valuable AI company. This move is flanked by a partnership with Berlin-based voice assistant specialist Parloa and the planned acquisition of the Freiburg AI lab Prior Labs.

SAP invests in n8n: valuation more than doubles to $5.2 billion

SAP has taken a stake in the Berlin-based workflow automation provider n8n, raising the startup’s valuation to $5.2 billion. That is more than double the value set during the last funding round in October 2025, when n8n was valued at approximately $2.5 billion. The investment was announced at SAP’s customer conference Sapphire in Orlando.

According to a commercial register entry, SAP now holds a stake of just under 1.3 percent in n8n. According to an insider, SAP’s total commitment is said to have amounted to more than 60 million euros. This reportedly includes a secondary deal in which SAP acquired shares from existing investors, as well as a license agreement for integrating n8n’s technology into SAP products. Both companies have agreed to maintain confidentiality regarding the precise details of the transaction.

With the new valuation, n8n displaces the Freiburg-based company Black Forest Labs from the top spot among German AI firms. Black Forest Labs was most recently valued at just under $3.3 billion. Within Europe, n8n is moving closer to Swedish AI provider Lovable, which is valued at $6.6 billion.

n8n wins Mercedes-Benz as a major customer

Shortly before the SAP investment was announced, a far-reaching partnership between n8n and Mercedes-Benz also became public. The Stuttgart-based automaker is jointly introducing a global platform for AI-powered workflow automation with n8n. The goal is to integrate artificial intelligence across core business processes on a broad scale — from development and production through sales to financial services, human resources, and IT.

According to Mercedes-Benz, a key reason for choosing n8n is the question of digital sovereignty. Since the platform can be self-hosted and operated independently of any cloud provider, the company retains full control over critical data and workflows. Mercedes-Benz CIO Katrin Lehmann commented on the partnership as follows:

“AI does not scale through technology alone. What matters is that it delivers impact quickly within the core business. With n8n, we give our teams at Mercedes-Benz the ability to translate ideas into measurable value along the value chain.”

The rollout was accompanied by a company-wide hackathon in which more than 1,500 employees participated. The most promising ideas are now being converted into operational processes with the help of n8n.

SAP and Parloa: partnership for AI-powered customer communication

Also at the Sapphire conference, SAP announced a strategic partnership with the Berlin-based startup Parloa, which specializes in so-called Agentic Customer Experience. SAP has also made a strategic investment in Parloa, building on a successful Series D funding round. As part of the cooperation, Parloa’s AI agents will be integrated into SAP Service Cloud.

The aim of the partnership is to treat customer interactions no longer as isolated events, but to link them with real business data and service processes. Parloa handles the customer-facing conversation management across voice and digital channels, while SAP contributes process depth, semantically enriched business data, and governance structures. SAP itself uses Parloa internally to provide its own employees with AI-powered IT support.

“As customer expectations grow and change rapidly, delivering a faster and more personalized customer experience requires AI that is anchored in business processes, data, and governance,” said SAP CEO Christian Klein.

The Parloa solution is planned as an SAP Endorsed App and is already available in the SAP Store. Deeper product integration and joint go-to-market initiatives have been announced for the coming months.

Background: SAP acquires Prior Labs for tabular AI models

As a further building block of its AI strategy, SAP has entered into an agreement to acquire the Freiburg-based startup Prior Labs. Founded in 2024 by Frank Hutter, Noah Hollmann, and Sauraj Gambhir, the company specializes in so-called Tabular Foundation Models — AI models for analyzing structured data in tables and spreadsheets. SAP plans to invest more than one billion euros in Prior Labs over the next four years.

Prior Labs thus addresses a gap that classical large language models cannot close. Their understanding of tables, numbers, and statistical relationships is considered limited. The startup’s core product, TabPFN, has recorded more than three million downloads and holds first place on TabArena, the leading benchmark for tabular AI models. Use cases include, among others, the prediction of payment delays, supplier risks, and customer churn.

SAP CTO Philipp Herzig justified the acquisition by citing the strategic potential of structured enterprise data:

“The biggest untapped opportunity in enterprise AI was not large language models, but AI built for the structured data on which the world’s businesses run.”

Prior Labs had completed only a single funding round prior to the acquisition. In February 2024, the startup raised nine million euros, from investors including Balderton Capital, Atlantic Labs, and XTX Ventures. The closing of the transaction is expected in the second or third quarter of 2026 and remains subject to regulatory approval. The purchase price was not publicly disclosed. Prior Labs is to continue operating as an independent unit following the closing, but will be closely integrated into the SAP ecosystem, including SAP AI Core, SAP Business Data Cloud, and the AI assistant Joule.