Editing SAS Institute (section)

{{Short description|American IT and analytics company}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox company
| name = SAS Institute Inc.
| logo = SAS logo horiz.svg
| type = [[Private company|Private]]
| foundation = {{start date and age|1976|7|1}}
| location = [[Cary, North Carolina|Cary]], [[North Carolina]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| founder = [[Anthony James Barr]]<br />[[James Goodnight]]<br />[[John Sall]]<br />[[Jane Helwig]]
| key_people = [[James Goodnight]], <small>CEO and [[Entrepreneur|Co-founder]]</small><br />[[John Sall]], <small> [[Entrepreneur|Co-founder]] and Executive Vice President</small>
| area_served = Worldwide
| industry = [[Software]]
| products = [[SAS (software)]]<br />[[SAS language]]<br />[[SAS Viya]]<br/>[[JMP (statistical software)|JMP]]
| revenue = {{profit}} US$ 3+ billion (2024)<ref name="SAS2023-2024Report">{{cite web | title=2023 Annual Report | website=SAS | url=https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/documents/corporate-collateral/annual-report/company-overview-report.pdf | access-date=2025-03-03}}</ref>
| num_employees = 10,000+ (2025)<ref>{{cite web | title=SAS Institute | website=Forbes | url=https://www.forbes.com/companies/sas/ | access-date=2025-03-03}}</ref>
| homepage = {{URL|https://www.sas.com/}}
}}
{{Coord|35|49|37|N|78|45|44|W|display=title}}

'''SAS Institute''' (or '''SAS''', pronounced "sass") is an American [[multinational corporation|multinational]] developer of [[analytics]] and artificial intelligence software based in [[Cary, North Carolina]]. SAS develops and markets a suite of analytics software ([[SAS (software)|also called SAS]]), which helps access, manage, analyze and report on data to aid in decision-making. The company's software is used by most of the Fortune 500.<ref name="seventyeight"/>

SAS Institute started as a project at [[North Carolina State University]] to create a statistical analysis system, in fact SAS originally stood for "'''Statistical Analysis System'''", though it is no longer considered an acronym.<ref>{{Citation |last=Herzberg |first=Paul A. |title=What is the SAS System? |date=1990 |work=How SAS Works: A Comprehensive Introduction to the SAS System |pages=3–10 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9670-7_1 |access-date=2024-02-25 |place=New York, NY |publisher=Springer US |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-4615-9670-7_1 |isbn=978-1-4615-9670-7|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It was originally used primarily by agricultural departments at universities in the late 1960s. It became an independent, private business led by current CEO [[James Goodnight]] and three other project leaders from the university in 1976.

SAS is one of the largest privately held software providers in the world, and the company's software is used by most of the [[Fortune 500]]. The company's revenue grew from $10 million in 1980 to $3.2 billion in 2022.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Gordon |first=Brian |date=September 28, 2023 |title=SAS eliminates more positions this week as part of its 2023 staff reduction plan |url=https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article279892654.html |work=The News & Observer}}</ref> Historically, it has spent a notably higher proportion of its annual revenue on [[research and development]] than most other software companies.