Ives: SAP will be a foundational player in the AI market

Dan Ives highlighted SAP’s crucial role as a foundational player in the AI market, emphasizing its strong growth in cloud offerings and the anticipated migration of enterprise workloads to cloud-based platforms. He suggested that SAP’s upcoming earnings report will be a key indicator for the tech sector’s performance, particularly in relation to AI advancements and overall enterprise spending.

In a recent discussion, Dan Ives emphasized the pivotal role of SAP in the evolving AI market, highlighting its potential as a foundational player. He noted that SAP is experiencing robust growth, particularly in its cloud offerings, which are expected to benefit significantly from the ongoing shift towards AI integration in enterprise solutions. Ives believes that this transition marks a substantial step forward for SAP and its position within the cloud ecosystem, alongside major players like Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

Ives pointed out that SAP is recognized as a global leader in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and recent insights from Morgan Stanley suggest that the company could be on the brink of a “super cycle” in this domain. He mentioned that a significant portion of enterprise workloads—approximately 45%—is projected to migrate to the cloud in the coming year, indicating a broader trend of moving ERP software for human resources, manufacturing, and logistics from on-premises solutions to cloud-based platforms.

The conversation also touched on the implications of SAP’s upcoming earnings report, which Ives described as a crucial indicator for the performance of hyper-scalers like Amazon and Google. He suggested that SAP’s results would serve as a barometer for the second phase of the AI revolution, with expectations for strong performance in the cloud segment, projected to grow by 27% year-over-year. This growth is seen as a positive sign for the broader tech landscape, particularly for companies heavily invested in cloud infrastructure.

Ives addressed concerns regarding potential slowdowns in data center growth, suggesting that while there may be a deceleration, companies like Microsoft could still gain market share. He expressed optimism about the overall cloud sector, predicting that many tech companies would report positive earnings and raise their forecasts, reflecting increased enterprise spending. This trend is indicative of a larger movement within the tech industry as it embraces AI technologies.

Finally, Ives highlighted the importance of capital expenditures (capex) in driving growth within the tech sector, particularly in relation to AI advancements. He noted that investors are looking for signs of continued acceleration in spending, especially following recent fluctuations in companies like NVIDIA. Overall, the discussion underscored the significant impact of AI on enterprise solutions and the critical role that SAP and other cloud providers will play in this transformative landscape.