'Main sponsor Oracle block a multi-million dollar deal with Red Bull'

As the team of world champion Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing is a magnet for sponsors. But not every sponsor is allowed to be on the cars, overalls and team clothing of the Austrian team. It is rumoured that the team's main sponsor Oracle have blocked a multi-million dollar deal with the Austrian team.

Perplexity, an AI company, was in talks about signing a sponsorship deal with Red Bull, according to The Verge in a deal that would have involved $5 million. But after both parties agreed to the terms, the deal was still blocked by Oracle, the team's biggest sponsor.

The Verge says it heard this from sources "familiar with the matter". Moreover, the website says it has seen documents that prove Oracle put a stop to the deal.

According to the sources, there were two things that made Oracle not agree to the deal. First, Oracle apparently made an offer to buy TikTok, as did Perplexity. Oracle is also a backer of Stargate, the billion-dollar project to build data centres for OpenAI. That company is a competitor of Perplexity.

According to the website, Oracle has to approve any sponsor of Red Bull. That is part of the deal, which is reportedly worth $300 million over five years. Oracle and Red Bull Racing did not respond to repeated requests from The Verge for comment. Perplexity also declined to comment.

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy

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