글로벌 기업용 소프트웨어巨头 SAP가 창업 18개월 만인 독일 AI 스타트업 'Prior Labs'를 인수하며, 향후 4년간 10억 유로(약 11억 6천만 달러)를 투자해 정형 데이터 특화 AI 연구소로 육성하겠다고 발표했습니다. 또한 무분별한 외부 AI 에이전트의 API 접근을 차단하는 방어적 정책을 취하면서도, 엔비디아의 엔터프라이즈용 에이전트 경쟁 모델인 'NemoClaw'는 공식 승인하여 고객 사용을 허가했습니다.
번역된 본문
오픈AI의 최고운영책임자(COO)는 지난 2월 "아직 AI가 기업의 비즈니스 프로세스에 깊이 스며들지는 못했다"고 인정한 바 있습니다. 하지만 'SaaS 폐말론(SaaSpocalypse)' 등의 영향으로 2026년 들어 주가가 크게 하락했던 기업용 소프트웨어 거인 SAP에게 이 문제는 여전히 가장 중요하고 시급한 현안입니다.
이번 주 월요일, 유럽의 IT 대형 기업인 SAP는 독일 AI 스타트업 'Prior Labs'를 인수하기로 했다고 발표했습니다. 규제 당국의 승인이 완료되면, SAP는 향후 4년간 해당 비즈니스에 10억 유로(약 11억 6천만 달러)를 투자하여 기업 정보가 주로 보관되는 표와 데이터베이스, 즉 '정형 데이터(structured data)'에 특화된 AI 연구소로 성장시킬 계획입니다.
SAP는 인수에 들어간 정확한 금액은 공개하지 않았지만, 관계자들에 따르면 이번 거래는 매우 성공적인 엑시트(Exit)였다고 합니다. 거의 전액 현금으로 이루어진 이번 딜을 통해 스타트업의 창업자인 프랭크 후터(Frank Hutter), 노아 할만(Noah Hollmann), 사우라즈 갬비(Sauraj Gambhir)는 5억 달러가 훌쩍 넘는 현금을 선수금으로 받았습니다. 이 세 명의 공동 창업자는 불과 18개월 전 '표 형식 기초 모델(Tabular Foundation Models, TFMs)'에 집중하며 Prior Labs를 설립했습니다. TFMs는 표와 데이터베이스 내의 데이터를 기반으로 예측을 수행하는 AI 모델로, 기업에게는 대형 언어 모델(LLM)보다 훨씬 더 적합한 솔루션일 수 있습니다.
특히 회계, 인사(HR), 조달 및 경비 관리를 위한 SAP의 광범위한 소프트웨어 제품군이 자체 데이터베이스에 의존하고 있다는 점을 고려하면 이 모델은 SAP와 완벽하게 들어맞습니다. 하지만 독일에서 가장 가치 있는 기업인 SAP는 기술 산업이 '에이전틱 AI(Agentic AI)'를 향해 나아가는 상황에서 방어적인 태세를 취하는 것으로 보입니다. 자체적인 AI 연구소를 구축하는 동시에, 명시적으로 승인하지 않은 외부 에이전트 기술인 'OpenClaw' 등의 접근을 차단했습니다.
이에 대해 SAP의 홍보팀은 TechCrunch의 코멘트 요청에 회사의 최신 API 정책을 안내했습니다. 해당 정책에 따르면 SAP는 "SAP가 보증한 아키텍처(SAP-endorsed architectures)"를 제외한 모든 AI 에이전트가 API를 통해 SAP 제품에 접근하는 것을 "엄격히 금지"합니다. 승인된 아키텍처에는 물론 고객이 자체 에이전트를 만들 수 있게 해주는 SAP의 자체 서비스인 'Joule Agents'(현재 베타 버전)가 포함됩니다. 엔비디아(Nvidia) 역시 지난 3월 SAP의 Joule이 자사의 에이전트 관리 소프트웨어인 'Nvidia Agent Toolkit'을 지원한다고 발표한 바 있습니다. 이 툴킷은 엔비디아의 엔터프라이즈급 보안 중심 'OpenClaw' 경쟁 모델인 'NemoClaw'의 기반이 됩니다. 따라서 SAP 고객들은 NemoClaw 에이전트를 공식적으로 승인받아 사용할 수 있게 됩니다.
[TechCrunch 이벤트 안내 생략]
SAP와 같은 거대 기존 기업에게 AI는 곧 위협이자 기회입니다. SAP의 도미니크 아삼(Dominik Asam) 최고재무책임자(CFO)는 지난 1월 CNBC와의 인터뷰에서 "핵심은 SAP가 우리의 R&D 포트폴리오에 이러한 기술을 얼마나 빨리 도입하여 상대적인 규모의 경제 이점을 유지하느냐에 달려 있다"고 밝혔습니다. SAP는 결코 손을 놓고 있지 않았습니다. 이 독일 기업은 대규모 및 소규모 언어 모델을 개발하는 생성형 AI 기업들에 투자해 왔습니다. 2023년에는 오픈AI의 라이벌인 앤스로픽(Anthropic)에 투자했으며, 현재 글로벌 AI 강자가 되기 위해 합병을 준비 중인 알레프 알파(Aleph Alpha)와 코히어(Cohere)에도 투자했습니다. 또한 관계형 사전 훈련 변환기 모델인 'SAP-RPT-1'을 자체 개발했습니다.
SAP의 필립 헤르찌(Philipp Herzig) 최고기술책임자(CTO)는 "SAP는 초기부터 기업용 AI에서 가장 큰 미개척 기회가 대형 언어 모델이 아니라 전 세계 비즈니스를 구동하는 '정형 데이터'를 위해 구축된 AI라는 것을 인식했다"고 확신에 차서 밝혔습니다.
By OpenAI COO’s own admission last February, "we have not yet really seen AI penetrate enterprise business processes." But for enterprise software giant SAP, whose stock has dropped significantly in 2026 in part from the "SaaSpocalypse," the issue is still front and center. On Monday, the European heavyweight announced its intention to acquire German AI startup Prior Labs for an undisclosed amount. Pending regulatory approval, SAP plans to invest €1 billion (approximately $1.16 billion) into the business over the next four years to grow it into an AI lab focused on structured data — the tables and databases where enterprise information typically sits. SAP declined to disclose how much it spent on the acquisition itself, but sources told Pathfounders that this was a healthy exit: an “almost all cash” deal, with well over half a billion dollars in cash up front for the startup's founders — Frank Hutter, Noah Hollmann, and Sauraj Gambhir. The trio co-founded Prior Labs just 18 months ago with a focus on tabular foundation models (TFMs) — AI models that can make predictions from data that sits in tables and databases. This is potentially a better fit for enterprises than language models. It is certainly a better fit for SAP, whose widely used software products for accounting, HR, procurement and expense management rely on its database. However, Germany’s most valuable company also seems be playing defense as the tech industry marches toward agentic AI. While it works to create its own AI lab, the company has blocked OpenClaw and any other agent tech that it has not explicitly authorized, The Information was first to spot. In response to a request for comment, SAP’s press department referred TechCrunch to the company’s latest API policy , which does say that SAP "prohibits" AI agents from accessing its products through its API except for those that are "SAP-endorsed architectures." Authorized architectures of course include SAP's own offering, Joule Agents , still in beta, which lets customers create their own agents. Nvidia also announced in March that SAP's Joule supports Nvidia's Agent Toolkit , which is software for managing agents. This toolkit is the foundation for Nvidia's enterprise-ready, security-focused OpenClaw competitor, NemoClaw. Hence SAP customers will be authorized to use NemoClaw agents. Techcrunch event This Week Only: Buy one pass, get the second at 50% off Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for three days of 250+ tactical sessions, powerful introductions, and market-defining innovation. Register before May 8 to bring a +1 at half the cost. This Week Only: Buy one pass, get the second at 50% off Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for three days of 250+ tactical sessions, powerful introductions, and market-defining innovation. Register before May 8 to bring a +1 at half the cost. San Francisco, CA | October 13-15, 2026 REGISTER NOW For a giant incumbent player like SAP, AI is both a threat and an opportunity. "It’s all about how quickly [we can] as SAP actually also embark [on] these technologies in our R&D portfolio to keep the relative economies of scale advantage,” CFO Dominik Asam told CNBC in January. SAP hasn't been sitting on its hands. The German company invested in generative AI companies that develop language models large and small: In 2023, it backed OpenAI rival Anthropic — as well as Aleph Alpha and Cohere, which now intend to merge to form “a global AI powerhouse.” It had also developed SAP-RPT-1 , a relational pretrained transformer model. “Early on, SAP recognized that the greatest untapped opportunity in enterprise AI wasn’t large language models; it was AI built for the structured data that runs the world’s businesses,” SAP CTO Philipp Herzig declared in a statement. But Prior Labs’ acquisition is a significant shortcut in that direction. Its TabPFN model series has experienced a lot of traction among developers. In a blog post on the deal, the startup’s founders said that its open source models have been downloaded over three million times. In a press release, SAP promised that Prior Labs will maintain the open source versions: "The lab will operate as an independent unit to ensure research velocity while SAP provides long-term investment and a direct path to productization across the SAP portfolio with SAP AI Core and SAP Business Data Cloud as well as the agentic layer with Joule." SAP and the startup headquartered in Freiburg, Germany, hope that this investment will lead to TFMs that can grab data in the tables where it lives, combine that with language, reasoning, and domain knowledge. More than that, they hope that Prior Labs, with this “massive boost” from SAP, can become a new "globally-leading frontier AI lab for structured data — in Europe, in the open,” founder and CEO Frank Hutter celebrated in a post on X . In February 2025, the startup had previously raised some $9.3 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Balderton Capital — more than competitor Neuralk-AI , but a lot less than Fundamental , which emerged out of stealth with a $255 million Series A in February. In a post on X , Balderton partner James Wise called Prior Labs' acquisition “one of Germany’s biggest ever venture outcomes.” As for SAP, its stock is currently trading slightly upwards. Meanwhile, SAP is being very strict as to the agents it will allow into its ecosystem. This is a wildly different approach than Salesforce, another incumbent caught in the SaaSpocalypse . It is allowing enterprise to choose their own agents, including OpenClaw if they so wish, with its new Headless 360 architecture . Topics agentic ai , AI , Enterprise , Europe , Germany , Mergers and Acquisitions , prior labs , sap , tabular data When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission . This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Anna Heim Freelance Reporter Anna Heim is a writer and editorial consultant. You can contact or verify outreach from Anna by emailing annatechcrunch [at] gmail.com. As a freelance reporter at TechCrunch since 2021, she has covered a large range of startup-related topics including AI, fintech & insurtech, SaaS & pricing, and global venture capital trends. As of May 2025, her reporting for TechCrunch focuses on Europe’s most interesting startup stories. Anna has moderated panels and conducted onstage interviews at industry events of all sizes, including major tech conferences such as TechCrunch Disrupt, 4YFN, South Summit, TNW Conference, VivaTech, and many more. A former LATAM & Media Editor at The Next Web, startup founder and Sciences Po Paris alum, she’s fluent in multiple languages, including French, English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. View Bio May 27 Athens, Greece StrictlyVC Athens is up next. 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