Chipmakers and F1 teams: A match made in compute heaven


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.

Intel and McLaren Racing announced a multiyear strategic partnership, naming Intel the Official Compute Partner of the McLaren Mastercard Formula One Team and Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team.
Intel and McLaren Racing announced a multiyear strategic partnership, naming Intel the Official Compute Partner of the McLaren Mastercard Formula One Team and Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team. · McLaren

“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.

The Mercedes F1 team has AMD as its chip partner.
The Mercedes F1 team has AMD as its chip partner. · Mercedes F1

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.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco steers his car during a qualifying session for the sprint race ahead of the Miami Formula One Grand Prix on May 1, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco steers his car during a qualifying session for the sprint race ahead of the Miami Formula One Grand Prix on May 1, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) · ASSOCIATED PRESS

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.



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