Current cloud backlog rose 26% at constant currency to 24.1 billion euros, above a 24% to 25% forecast, and cloud revenue grew 25% at constant currency. SAP moved its 2026 cloud revenue outlook to the top of its range.
For a company in the middle of moving its customers to the cloud, SAP's most important number is its backlog of contracted cloud revenue. In the third quarter, it grew faster than expected.
Current cloud backlog, the cloud revenue SAP expects to recognize over the next 12 months, rose 28%, or 26% at constant currency, to 24.14 billion euros. UBS had forecast 24% to 25%. Cloud revenue rose 26%, or 25% at constant currency, to 6.67 billion euros, and its Cloud ERP Suite grew 29% to 5.92 billion euros. Total revenue rose 13% to 10.27 billion euros, and operating profit rose 18%.
SAP said cloud revenue for 2026 should come in at the upper end of its 25.8 billion to 26.2 billion euro range at constant currency.
What the mix says
The Cloud ERP Suite accounted for nearly 89% of cloud revenue, and cloud now makes up about 65% of SAP's total revenue. Backlog growth running slightly ahead of current cloud revenue growth suggests the next few quarters of revenue are already contracted, which is the visibility investors pay for in software companies.
The quiet reaction
SAP's U.S.-listed shares closed Wednesday at $232.62, up 1.6%, and were little changed in thin premarket trading. That calm contrasts with IBM, which reported on the same evening, beat estimates and then fell sharply after its chief executive described customer worries about AI spending.
SAP's backlog shows its enterprise customers are still signing multiyear cloud commitments. Whether they are also slowing other AI projects is the question IBM's remark raised, and SAP's results do not answer it.
What to watch
The reaction in Frankfurt trading and among U.S. software peers; whether backlog growth stays above 25% next quarter; and how SAP converts its AI product push into paid cloud contracts.