Berlin, May 12, 2026, 20:10 (CEST)
SAP has picked up a strategic stake in Berlin’s n8n, putting a $5.2 billion price tag on the AI workflow automation outfit and more than doubling its valuation inside of a year, according to n8n on Tuesday. The pair struck a multi-year commercial agreement as well, which will see n8n’s technology woven into Joule Studio, SAP’s AI agent builder for automating business tasks.
Timing is key here. SAP wants to prove enterprise AI isn’t just for show—it can handle real-world work in finance, procurement, HR, and the supply chain, where a misstep has consequences and oversight is tight. Joule Studio is built into the company’s new Business AI Platform. According to SAP, this platform lets developers create agents, apps, and agentic workflows, all running on infrastructure managed and secured by SAP.
n8n puts a visual automation layer on top of SAP. What does AI orchestration actually do? It connects models, business apps, and data sources—so a process can move from trigger to decision, then on to execution. SAP’s COO Sebastian Steinhaeuser called n8n’s tech a “visual workflow engine” that’s set to be part of the Business AI Platform. For n8n, CEO Jan Oberhauser described the tie-up as an entry into “one of the largest enterprise ecosystems in the world.” n8n Blog
Oberhauser said n8n is seeing 1.7 million monthly active builders and counts over 1,400 enterprise customers, with Fortune 500 teams relying on the platform for key processes. He pointed out that SAP serves 99 out of the world’s 100 biggest companies, so teaming up with them gives n8n access to accounts that most AI startups spend years trying to land.
SAP CEO Christian Klein emphasized that the move is about control rather than chasing the latest AI trends. “Deep process knowledge, reliable data, and enterprise-grade governance”—that’s what agentic AI really needs, Klein said. Folding n8n into Joule Studio, he argued, should let customers build and expand AI throughout their main business operations. Tech
This latest valuation shakes up the German AI rankings. According to Handelsblatt, n8n has unseated Black Forest Labs as the country’s most valuable AI player, edging closer to Sweden’s Lovable, which the newspaper puts at $6.6 billion. Handelsblatt, referencing a fresh commercial register filing, also notes that SAP now owns just under 1.3% of n8n.
The size of the investment wasn’t made public. According to finanzen.net, which referenced dpa-AFX, Oberhauser said SAP picked up shares from current holders and put together a 100 million euro fund aimed at helping partners accelerate the rollout of AI software for customers.
n8n has seen a significant jump since its previous raise. In October, the company announced $180 million in Series C funding—Accel took the lead—pushing n8n’s valuation up to $2.5 billion and its total funding tally to $240 million. Investors in that round included Meritech, Redpoint, Evantic, Visionaries Club, Nvidia’s NVentures, T.Capital, Felicis, Sequoia, Highland Europe, and HV Capital.
At its Sapphire event in Orlando, SAP broadened its AI ambitions, rolling out partnerships with Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Nvidia, Palantir, Parloa, and n8n. SAP’s message: it aims to tether AI agents directly to customers’ business data and workflows, instead of having them operate in isolation.
Execution remains the real challenge. According to n8n, Sapphire attendees are getting a preview first; after that, a handful of customers and partners will enter an early-adopter period. Joule Studio integration’s full rollout isn’t set until the third quarter of 2026. For now, it’s all about whether clients are willing to trust the platform with things like identity controls, data residency, and live workflows—showcasing the software in a demo doesn’t cut it.
