The layoffs and reorganizations are a distraction and targeted to ki-l the old SAP business streams and make way for the future - Palantir becoming the most important service provider in Europe with the help of SAP.
CK recently sent an email to everyone explaining why AI is the top priority and all 5 OKRs on the SAP leadership level have AI in them. What he failed to mention that SAP is diverting their internal resources away from the core businesses such as ERP to focus on the immediate demand from Plantir and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Palantir is already an SAP partner.
https://www.sap.com/partners/find/palantir.html
However, there was never a time when SAP doubled down its entire engineering effort to satisfy one single partner. I won't share each of the 5 OKRs publicly. But if you look into each OKR and their overlap with the requests from Palantir, you will be surprised. The entirety of Sovreign cloud features are to support the U.S. Department of Defense and its supplier base.
Joule is synonymous with the Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform where SAP just builds features that Palantir needs. Like AIP, Joule is supposed to focus on a relatively user friendly GUI for AI agents with a focus on low code / no code. It is to be given access to all customer data and also private SAP employee data. Even the interface of Joule mirrors AIP and it has the action-driven logic and automation in the code structure.
In internal emails, CK asked for focus on some critical industries for Joule. It is the same list that Palantir advertises on their AIP website.
https://www.palantir.com/platforms/aip/
In 2026 Q1 several employees in the top management will 'quit' because of the change in direction for the 2026 strategy. Signavio Process Mining is actually developing features that can be sued by Palantir's Foundry Process Mining & Automation platform.
I understand why a company would shift focus on AI features. But I don't understand why SAP is changing their entire strategy to accommodate for everything asked by a single SAP partner - Palantir. Seamless connectivity between Palantir and SAP Business Data Cloud was the first step. And now the executive board's decision is that the development in 2026 and 2027 will effectively ensure interoperability between Joule and AIP and allow for effective bidirectional data access.
Palantir is unable to get adequate access to European government, industry and civilian data and they plan to get this access through SAP. For this, Palantir is working on HyperAuto, which serves as the dedicated integration bridge connecting SAP’s core systems into Palantir Foundry and AIP.
You know which company worked closely with Palantir before SAP? Airbus. Palantir literally powers Airbus's digital twins via Skywise, currently used by more than half of Airbus Commercial employees giving Palantir full access to their design, manufacturing, and predictive maintenance. It came into fruition around the same time Dominic Asam moved from Airbus to SAP.
This Skyview system is what accelerated layoffs across Airbus just as Joule is supposed to accelerate layoffs across SAP. Performance management and HPOM and lower salary and benefits budgets will keep SAP employees too distracted and busy and scared to speak up.
This is a major concern for SAP shareholders because they did not vote for SAP to become a puppet for an American intelligence company. This is a major concern for SAP employees because they are supposed to work on the exact technology that will be used to fire them. This is a major concern for SAP customers because they are getting really bad AI slop in SAP products which is counterproductive for their use cases and they are asked to pay more to fund the development for Palantir. This is also a major concern for European governments because the U.S. Department of Defense found an effective way to infiltrate and cripple Europe's data sovereignty. The SAP executive board has been downplaying the significance of this cooperation
All of this because CK, the former Airbus CFO and other executive board members are making money from SAP executive bonuses and have their future set up when they leave SAP. .