Tech Meets the Track: Ferrari and Rakuten Forge 2027 Partnership

MARANELLO, Italy – September 17, 2026 — In a move that underscores the rapidly converging worlds of high-performance automotive engineering and global digital infrastructure, Ferrari S.p.A. has officially announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Japanese technology conglomerate Rakuten Group, Inc. Set to take effect on January 1, 2027, the agreement aligns one of Europe’s most storied luxury performance brands with a titan of Asian e-commerce and telecommunications.

While preliminary wire reports characterized the deal as a broad corporate alignment, the heart of this collaboration lies within the Formula 1 paddock. Rakuten will step in as an official Team Partner for Scuderia Ferrari HP, securing global category exclusivity in both Telecommunications and E-Commerce. Beyond the highly visible branding on the iconic red single-seaters and driver race suits, the alliance serves as a critical technological proving ground and a strategic gateway for both entities to expand their global footprints.

For the Maranello-based automaker, the partnership represents the latest step in a comprehensive digital transformation strategy. For the Tokyo-based tech giant, it marks a triumphant return to the highest echelons of European sports sponsorship following a period of intense corporate restructuring and domestic infrastructure investment.

A New Era of Technical Sponsorship

The days of Formula 1 sponsorships serving merely as high-speed billboard advertising are long gone. Today, elite racing teams demand deep technical integrations that actively enhance trackside operations, and the Rakuten agreement is structured to deliver exactly that. The partnership explicitly encompasses Rakuten Symphony, the conglomerate's business-to-business subsidiary specializing in cloud-native, open-RAN (Radio Access Network) software solutions for communications service providers.

Modern Formula 1 is fundamentally a data-driven enterprise. During a standard Grand Prix weekend, a team must seamlessly transmit gigabytes of live telemetry data per lap between trackside race engineering trucks and factory mission control in Europe. This requires ultra-low-latency edge computing and robust private network capabilities. By integrating Rakuten Symphony’s open-architecture telecommunications solutions into its operational ecosystem, Scuderia Ferrari HP gains a sophisticated connectivity framework capable of handling immense data loads under extreme conditions.

Conversely, the racing environment provides Rakuten Symphony with the ultimate high-stress B2B showcase. The subsidiary, which reported full-year revenues exceeding $570 million in 2025, intends to leverage Formula 1’s technical prestige to market its edge-compute and private network capabilities to telecom operators worldwide. This technical synergy perfectly complements Ferrari’s increasingly aggressive tech-first commercial portfolio, which already includes title partner HP for computing hardware, IBM for data and artificial intelligence, and DXC Technology for in-car human-machine interfaces.

Revving Up E-Commerce and Fan Engagement

Beyond the pit wall, the partnership aims to fundamentally overhaul how the racing team monetizes its immense global following. Scuderia Ferrari boasts an estimated fan base exceeding 400 million people worldwide. However, converting that widespread passion into high-end merchandise sales has historically faced distribution and localization friction, particularly in markets outside of Europe.

Rakuten operates one of the world's most sophisticated domestic and international marketplace networks. The collaboration will allow the Italian marque to modernize its online shopping channels, optimize fan-wear fulfillment logistics, and introduce highly customized loyalty and membership experiences. By tapping directly into the Japanese company's massive customer base—which includes over 100 million registered IDs in its home country alone—the automaker can significantly reduce the friction of international digital commerce.

"Welcoming Rakuten to Scuderia Ferrari HP represents an opportunity to bring together two brands with a strong global presence, united by a shared belief in the power of innovation," said Lorenzo Giorgetti, Chief Racing Revenue Officer at Ferrari S.p.A. "Rakuten has built an extraordinary digital ecosystem and brings technological expertise that can open new avenues for value creation beyond the track."

Rakuten’s Financial Rebound and Global Ambitions

The timing of this partnership is highly indicative of Rakuten's renewed financial strength. Chairman and CEO Hiroshi "Mickey" Mikitani has long viewed elite sports sponsorship as a cornerstone of brand building, famously utilizing a $60 million annual global partnership with FC Barcelona to elevate the company's brand awareness from single digits to household recognition in Western Europe and the Americas. The company also maintains a highly lucrative jersey-badge partnership with the NBA's Golden State Warriors.

However, between 2020 and 2024, the conglomerate faced severe financial headwinds, sustaining massive consolidated losses due to the immense capital expenditures required to build Japan’s fourth mobile network, Rakuten Mobile, entirely from scratch. The 2027 Ferrari deal signals that this period of cash burn has decisively concluded.

By FY2025, the group achieved a record revenue of over $16.5 billion. More importantly, Rakuten Mobile achieved its first full-year EBITDA profit, eclipsing 10.75 million subscribers by mid-2026, leading the broader group to post its first consolidated positive net quarterly income in six years. With its core fintech and e-commerce engines generating substantial free cash flow, the company is once again redeploying global marketing capital to accelerate international client acquisition.

"Motorsport at the highest level is defined by a relentless pursuit of excellence, technological innovation and creating unique connections with fans—a commitment we share with Scuderia Ferrari HP," stated Mikitani. "This partnership provides Rakuten with a dynamic global stage to bring the strength of its technology, digital ecosystem and unique membership experiences directly to millions of passionate Ferrari and Formula 1 fans around the world."

Deepening Roots in a Key Luxury Bastion

From a macroeconomic perspective, the alliance serves as a calculated effort to strengthen Ferrari's commercial footprint in the Asia-Pacific region. While the broader luxury environment in East Asia has shown signs of cooling in recent years, Japan remains the automaker's most resilient, mature, and established Asian market. The country has historically outpaced individual Southeast Asian nations and demonstrates a consistent, highly discerning demand for luxury automotive products.

The Italian manufacturer exercises strict allocation discipline in the region to sustain the resale value and exclusivity of its vehicles. Order-book waitlists for core models like the 12Cilindri and Purosangue typically stretch between 24 and 36 months, driven by high-margin bespoke personalization through the brand's exclusive Tailor Made program. By integrating its brand with a deeply entrenched domestic technology ecosystem, the luxury automaker can offer unparalleled access and digital concierge services to this elite demographic.

Furthermore, the cultural affinity for Formula 1 in Japan cannot be overstated. The Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka remains one of the best-attended and most culturally revered events on the global racing calendar. Aligning European elite engineering with intense Japanese brand loyalty creates a powerful synergy that extends far beyond a standard sponsorship agreement, embedding the prancing horse even deeper into the fabric of one of the world's most critical luxury bastions.