[quectophoton]

> Is 20b euro enough to be a real alternative?

Since we're talking about Europe, my first instinct here is that I want to double-check what they mean by "billion"[1].

This article being in English makes me assume short scale, but SAP being German makes it possible (even if unlikely) that it could be a mistranslation that everyone else just copied.

If only any of these articles could link to a source. But searching for literal quotes doesn't seem to return any authoritative source, or even any transcripts (if this was announced verbally).

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#German-s...

[scopendo]

The alternative of 10^12 (trillion) seems a stretch to say the least.

[_zoltan_]

here is the original announcement: https://news.sap.com/germany/2025/09/sap-souveraene-cloudang...

and the relevant quote: "Durch eine langfristige Investition von über 20 Milliarden Euro setzt SAP einen klaren strategischen Fokus auf digitale Souveränität."

"more than 20000 million euros"

[quectophoton]

Thanks!

> 20 Milliarden Euro

Yep, so the source uses the long scale "milliard" and the translations use short scale "billion", it checks out.

[rich_sasha]

Indeed, Continental billion is 1e12, not 1e9.

The idea of SAP spending 20e12 EUR seems hard to believe.

[stodor89]

As someone from a country that supposedly uses billion as 1e12, the last time I've seen anyone do it was 2005, and that was in a book from the 1960s.

[dogma1138]

They aren’t not spending the GDP of the EU on a cloud.

Short form is the norm these days all over Europe.