German software company SAP overtook Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk as Europe’s largest company by market capitalisation on Monday.
At 11am SAST, SAP had a market cap of US$340-billion, slightly more than Novo Nordisk, according to calculations using LSEG Workspace data.
SAP is Europe’s largest software maker, providing business application software used by companies for finance, sales, supply chain and other functions.
Its shares have surged in recent years, in part due to optimism that its cloud business will be a major beneficiary of recent investment in generative artificial intelligence.
While SAP shares are up 7% so far in 2025, underperforming the broader European Stoxx 600 index, which is up 8.3% year to date, they have clocked a total return of 160% since the end of 2022, far outperforming the Stoxx 600’s 28%.
In contrast, Novo Nordisk shares have underperformed the market in recent months after data from trials of its experimental next-generation obesity drug Cagrisema disappointed investors.
Read: SAP to cough up billions to settle corruption probe
The Danish healthcare firm unseated luxury retailer LVMH as Europe’s largest company in September 2023. — Lucy Raitano and Samuel Indyk, (c) 2025 Reuters
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