Europe’s most valuable company, SAP, is only extending its lead
The German software giant has seen its market cap skyrocket on the back of US tariffs — the same can’t be said for Novo Nordisk and LVMH.
Since dethroning Novo Nordisk as Europe’s most valuable company back in March, German software giant SAP has gone from strength to strength — while the Danish Ozempic maker has sunk further in the face of tariff uncertainty.
Specializing in business tech, SAP has been remarkably resilient to the US tariff storm that other European companies have struggled to weather. At the end of April, the company surpassed analyst expectations by posting a huge operating profit of 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) for the first quarter, a 58% year-over-year increase, sending shares soaring.
SAP away
Today, SAP’s market cap stands at ~$365 billion, up 21% from the start of the year and storming ahead of two previous title holders of “Europe’s biggest company.” At the time of writing, Novo is valued at ~$285 billion, while luxury behemoth LVMH is worth ~$281 billion — down 28% and 14%, respectively, since the beginning of 2025.
Continental shift
At the same time that SAP has seen its cloud-based organizational services become more useful to businesses amid tariff turmoil (in its Q1 earnings, SAP said it expects cloud revenue to reach up to 21.9 billion euros this year), Europe’s pharmaceutical industry and luxury sector have been hit particularly hard.
Indeed, as Novo measures itself up against weight-loss drug competition, it still anticipates export tariffs to dent sales, cutting its full-year and profit guidance this month — the first time it’s done so since launching Wegovy in 2021. Meanwhile, LVMH, once the deluxe darling of the Paris equity market, is now its biggest drag, with consumers pulling back on lavish spending and top-shelf alcohol losing its sparkle.
But, as SAP prepares to host its stateside conference for financial analysts in Florida on Wednesday, the question remains: can Europe’s most valuable stock — one of the only four tech companies in the region worth over $100 billion, compared to the US’s 33 — soar anywhere close to the gargantuan market caps of America’s biggest tech companies?
