Lenovo Becomes FIFA's First Technology Partner for 2026 World Cup; AI Revenue Reaches One-Third of Group Total

The first AI World Cup applied artificial intelligence on a large scale across core systems including television broadcasting, referee decisions and event operations. AI stabilisation algorithms were introduced to referee-view camera feeds, reducing average picture shake by 50% to 70% while keeping latency at 2 to 3 seconds, compared with the industry norm of 6 to 15 seconds. These camera feeds generated more than 20 billion exposures in total, and 87% of fans said the technological upgrades had significantly improved the viewing experience.

3D digital human technology was used for semi-automated offside recognition replays. A total of 1,263 players were scanned before the tournament, and reconstruction techniques including Gaussian modelling generated a unique representation for each player. The FIFA AI Pro system was made available to all 48 participating teams, supporting 16 languages and analysing more than 2,000 match metrics. More than 300 users made thousands of queries on the system.

The tournament operations centre brought together data from more than 40 business segments via 600 data feeds, providing real-time information on security, logistics, communications, stadium operations and other areas. During the tournament, match systems faced 300 million to 500 million cyber attacks per day. A fibre-optic line was interrupted at one point, but backup routes and repair teams ensured broadcast services were not affected.

Lenovo deployed 25,000 devices in 16 stadiums across three countries, all available on a plug-and-play basis. In October 2024, Lenovo became FIFA's first technology partner, with responsibility for technical support for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup. Lenovo has said AI-related revenue accounts for one-third of the group's total revenue.