Purpose: The paper seeks first to present an overview of the corporate university landscape in Germany contrasting it with the US-American corporate university market and, second, to outline the development in Germany during the last 15 years and to have a look at future trends such as learning alliances. Design/methodology/approach: The comparison in the paper is based on empirical data of the largest corporate universities in the USA and Germany gathered by interviews with the heads of the institutions and by evaluations of data such as homepages, brochures, and presentations by the companies. In addition, reference is made to surveys and case studies published by other researchers. Findings: The paper works out major differences between Germany and the USA regarding the educational level, target groups, strategic directions, partnerships, alliances with external vendors, accreditation, focus on internal versus external job market, and organisation that can be led back to the stronger strategic orientation of German corporate universities. It presents the business model of a learning alliance as a potential solution to the major challenges German corporate universities are facing. Research limitations/implications: Research data being based on interviews and corporate data risk being biased due to marketing purposes. Future research should include internal observations and evaluations. Practical implications: The paper gives an example for a learning alliance in practice that could be of relevance for a larger number of institutions. Originality/value: The comparative study helps to understand the US-American and German corporate university markets as well as their specificities and investigates future developments. (Contains 7 figures.)