SAP Acquires Dremio to Unify SAP and Non-SAP Data for Agentic AI

SAP announced that it will acquire Dremio – a company developing an open-source data lakehouse platform aimed at accelerating agentic AI and real-time analytics workloads.

The deal is intended to expand the capabilities of SAP Business Data Cloud to unify SAP and non-SAP data into a single platform that supports AI applications and analytics. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed, and its completion is still subject to regulatory approval.

Focus on the challenge of fragmented data

According to SAP, a key reason many enterprise AI projects fail is not the AI models themselves, but data-related issues – fragmentation, use of closed formats, and lack of business context.

This often leads to:

• AI projects that are difficult to scale
• slow integration of new data sources
• duplication of engineering work
• difficulties in tracking AI decisions and ensuring regulatory compliance

Dremio is designed specifically to reduce the complexity of data integration and enable more efficient processing of analytics and AI workloads.

Integration with SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP HANA Cloud

Following the acquisition, Dremio will complement SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP HANA Cloud, enabling easier integration between SAP and external data.

SAP plans to transform its platform into an Apache Iceberg-native enterprise lakehouse, based on the open-source Apache Iceberg standard. This will allow SAP and non-SAP data to coexist in a shared environment without the need to move data or convert between formats.

The combination with the in-memory capabilities of SAP HANA Cloud will enable real-time processing of both transactions and analytics.

Open architecture and AI-ready data

Dremio uses a serverless and elastic architecture that automatically scales resources based on workload demands. This enables cost optimization and avoids limitations during intensive AI and analytics operations.

A key role will also be played by a universal catalog built on:

• Apache Polaris
• Apache Iceberg REST Catalog API
  
  

This catalog will act as a central layer for data discovery and business semantics within SAP Business Data Cloud. According to SAP, it will provide a single point of access to:

• business context
• data relationships
• access permissions
• data lineage information
  
  

This architecture will also form the foundation for the future SAP Knowledge Graph, which will integrate business dependencies, organizational structures, and regulatory classifications.

Continued focus on open-source technologies

Dremio is among the key contributors to the development of open-source projects such as:

• Apache Iceberg
• Apache Arrow
• Apache Polaris
  
  

SAP stated that it will continue to invest in and support the development of these technologies after the deal is completed.

Expected completion in 2026

The acquisition is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of 2026, pending the necessary regulatory approvals.

With this move, SAP is expanding its strategy to build AI-ready data infrastructure that supports enterprise AI, analytics processes, and real-time agentic AI applications.