Key insights
- Intel partners with McLaren F1, IndyCar, and eSports teams, providing Xeon and Core Ultra processors for performance-critical workloads. This highlights the increasing importance of high-performance computing and data analytics in motorsports and serves as a marketing opportunity for Intel. While positive for Intel, the broader US equity market impact is limited.
Big Tech’s embrace of Formula One (FWONK) isn’t exactly breaking news, as the data-heavy sport is a natural partner. But now chipmakers are getting into the game too.
On Thursday, chip giant Intel (INTC) announced a deal with McLaren F1 racing team — as well as McLaren’s IndyCar and eSports team — in a multiyear partnership naming Intel the British racing team’s Official Compute Partner.
Under the agreement, Intel said its Xeon and Core Ultra processors will support McLaren's “performance-critical workloads,” such as computational fluid dynamics, aerodynamic analysis, vehicle-dynamics simulation, race strategy analytics, and the real-time decision systems that connect the McLaren base in Woking, England, with the race team, wherever it may be.
“Formula 1 racing and IndyCar are some of the ultimate proving grounds for high-performance computing,” Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a statement.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown added, “Intel has already been an important part of our technology ecosystem, and their leadership in computing will play a critical role in how we design, build, and race our cars.”
Big Tech firms like Oracle (ORCL), Dell (DELL), Amazon’s (AMZN) AWS, IBM (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT), and a number of others dot the cars and billboards of F1 teams and tracks. (And let’s not forget Apple (AAPL) holds F1’s US streaming rights.)
The confluence of collecting and analyzing vast streams of data and making use of heavy compute to inform real-time decisions on the track is a natural fit for Big Tech to showcase what it can do for teams (and clients) on the grand stage that is F1.
As chipmakers, once the commodity class of tech, see their shares skyrocket amid investor interest — including the US government, with its stake in Intel — striking out on big marketing and strategic partnerships with the biggest player in global motor sports makes a lot of sense.
Intel rival AMD (AMD), another US-based chipmaker, previously had a deal with Scuderia Ferrari, the Italian automaker’s F1 team, but switched over to Mercedes (MBGAF) F1 in 2020.
Mercedes said AMD is crucial to the team’s success with aerodynamics, real-time analytics, and compute for data-heavy applications. “AMD is crucially important for our success,” Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said.
Ferrari’s (RACE) next chip partner, Qualcomm (QCOM), whose chips the company uses for its road cars, flipped to Mercedes as well, adding another chipmaker to the German team’s roster.
But don’t feel bad for the Maranello team: Hardware giant HP (HPQ) is Ferrari’s lead sponsor, and it has IBM in tow as well.
And if you think Ferrari doesn’t have enough chip exposure, CEO Benedetto Vigna was a former top exec at chipmaker STMicro (STM) before landing the top gig at Ferrari. Vigna also holds the patent for the sensors first used in iPhones to rotate the screen by turning the handset, so the CEO is no empty suit either.
Pras Subramanian is Lead Auto Reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
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