Banco Santander reported €194 million in value from its Data & AI initiatives through Sept. 30, offering a company-reported measure of gains while leaving AI’s contribution to net profit unquantified.
In its nine-month earnings presentation, Santander describes the metric as value from additional revenue, cost savings and reduced loan-loss provisions. The presentation does not split the €194 million among those categories or identify AI-related costs. It is a business-value estimate, separate from a net-profit figure.
For the first nine months of 2026, Santander reported underlying profit of €11.176 billion, up 16% from a year earlier, and attributable profit of €12.405 billion, up 20%. Its results release cited customer activity and the ONE Transformation program as drivers of underlying performance, without assigning either profit figure to AI.
The bank has also pointed to operational uses. In June, Santander said more than 280 process-automation agents were in production. It reported that AI made card-fraud claims processing in Brazil about 95% faster, with up to 90% of the work automated.
CNBC reported that Santander Chief Financial Officer José García Cantera called it “really difficult” to isolate AI’s contribution and said the technology was improving service quality.
Other companies report AI-related gains using different measures. Meta credited AI with supporting advertising revenue through user engagement, recommendations and monetization, but gave no separate dollar amount. It also said returns on AI investments would take longer than returns on investment in its core business. Meta’s total revenue rose 26% to $64.60 billion in the third quarter.
Alphabet reported Google Cloud revenue of $30.7 billion, up 103% in the third quarter, citing enterprise AI infrastructure and solutions as well as core cloud services and TPU sales.
Stanford University’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Institute put global corporate AI investment at $581.69 billion in 2025, up 129.9% from 2024. The total combines acquisitions, minority stakes, private investment and public offerings; it measures investment, not operating returns.
Santander said in June it was on track to exceed €200 million in AI business value by the end of 2026.
