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SAP and Fresenius partner to create a sovereign AI backbone for healthcare, marking a significant step toward secure, compliant, and scalable AI adoption in clinical environments across Europe. The collaboration focuses on building a controlled digital infrastructure where artificial intelligence can be used responsibly—without sacrificing data sovereignty or regulatory compliance.
As healthcare organisations increasingly look to AI for diagnostics, operations, and patient care, data leaders face a persistent challenge: how to deploy advanced technologies while meeting strict governance, privacy, and compliance requirements. Traditional public cloud models often fall short in highly regulated medical contexts. SAP and Fresenius aim to close this gap with a purpose-built sovereign AI platform designed specifically for healthcare.
From Experimental AI to Real-World Healthcare Impact
One of the core ambitions of the partnership is to move AI beyond isolated pilots and into everyday clinical use. Instead of running disconnected experiments, SAP and Fresenius are developing an open, integrated ecosystem that acts as a digital backbone for a sovereign, AI-enabled healthcare system.
This backbone will allow hospitals and care providers to deploy AI models within a secure, controlled environment—ensuring sensitive health data remains protected while still enabling innovation at scale. The emphasis is not just on technology, but on making AI practical and usable for frontline medical teams.
Michael Sen, CEO of Fresenius, highlighted the broader vision behind the initiative, noting that the partnership is designed to accelerate digital transformation across German and European healthcare systems. By embedding secure and scalable AI into daily workflows, the platform aims to free up clinicians’ time and refocus attention on patient care rather than administrative complexity.
A Compliant Technical Foundation Built for Scale
At the core of the platform is SAP Business AI, combined with the SAP Business Data Cloud. Together, these technologies provide a compliant and sovereign foundation for operating AI models in healthcare settings. The infrastructure is designed to handle highly sensitive health data responsibly—an essential requirement for scaling automation and AI-driven decision-making in patient care.
This approach enables healthcare providers to confidently transition AI solutions from concept to production. With governance and compliance built into the architecture, organisations can expand AI usage without constantly revisiting regulatory risks.
Solving Data Fragmentation with Open Standards
Healthcare systems often struggle with fragmented data spread across multiple hospital information systems and medical applications. The SAP–Fresenius partnership directly addresses this issue through SAP’s “AnyEMR” strategy, which supports the integration of diverse hospital information systems (HIS).
By using open industry standards such as HL7 FHIR, the platform connects HIS, electronic medical records (EMRs), and other clinical applications into a unified data layer. This interoperability allows data to flow securely across the care chain, creating a more complete and actionable view of patient information.
With this connectivity in place, Fresenius can develop AI-supported solutions that improve efficiency, reduce manual workloads, and enable more data-driven healthcare processes. The long-term goal is a scalable, individualised platform that supports connected care across hospitals and regions.
Investing in Sovereign AI for Europe’s Healthcare Future
Both companies have committed to investing a mid three-digit million euro amount over the medium term to support this initiative. The funding will be directed toward accelerating digital transformation across German and European healthcare systems using AI-powered solutions.
Beyond internal development, the partnership also plans joint investments in startups and scaleups. These efforts are intended to expand the ecosystem with additional tools and applications that can plug into the sovereign AI platform, increasing its value and flexibility over time.
Christian Klein, CEO of SAP SE, emphasised that the collaboration combines SAP’s technology leadership with Fresenius’ deep healthcare expertise. Together, the companies aim to set new benchmarks for data sovereignty, security, and innovation—while enabling Fresenius to fully harness AI and digital processes to improve patient outcomes.
Why Sovereign AI Is Becoming Essential in Healthcare
This partnership signals a broader shift in how healthcare AI will evolve in Europe. As regulatory scrutiny intensifies, AI initiatives that lack a sovereign data backbone risk stalling due to compliance and trust concerns. Healthcare, more than most industries, requires controlled environments where data protection is non-negotiable.
By focusing on sovereign infrastructure from the outset, SAP and Fresenius partner to create a sovereign AI backbone for healthcare that balances innovation with responsibility. The result could be a blueprint for how AI is deployed safely and effectively across Europe’s most sensitive and critical sectors.
