At the Lenovo Group investor day on June 25th, the 2026 FIFA World Cup served as a key case study for management to illustrate the company's capabilities in implementing its AI strategy.

Lenovo Group Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing stated that the market has already witnessed how Lenovo's technology is supporting the current FIFA World Cup. He pointed out that Lenovo Group's AI technology and capabilities now span devices, infrastructure, solutions, and services, and are forming applications across vertical industries such as manufacturing, retail, and sports.

As the official technology partner for this World Cup, Lenovo Group is serving as the AI technology and computing power foundation, directly participating in the formulation and operation of competition rules. Specifically, Lenovo has deployed servers at the International Broadcast Centre in Las Vegas to support event broadcasting, IPTV distribution, real-time operational monitoring, and AI applications. Concurrently, it is providing AI technologies including the Football AI Pro super-intelligent agent, the VAR 3D digital human visualization solution, and the referee-perspective AI video enhancement system Ref Cam. The company has also deployed over 17,000 related devices across all 16 stadiums and dispatched more than 200 engineers.

"We are applying the capabilities we have already developed in our own operations to a scenario of global scale," explained Huang Jianheng, Executive Vice President of Lenovo Group and President of the Solutions and Services Group, further.

The core of the FIFA case is the Intelligent Command Centre, which can be understood as the "operating system" within a complex operational scenario. This system provides real-time visualization capabilities, prioritizes issues, and uses AI to analyze thousands of signals in real-time, offering action recommendations before minor problems escalate. For a global event covering 48 teams, 104 matches, 16 stadiums, and a 39-day schedule, such capabilities are directly related to the efficiency of event operations and the speed of risk response.

"The reason this capability is particularly valuable is that its foundation was developed and validated within Lenovo's own operations before being adapted and applied to the FIFA scenario," he further noted. By collaborating with FIFA domain experts and ecosystem partners, Lenovo has been able to apply its internally validated engineering to a completely different environment, transforming it into a scalable solution.

Recently, an investment bank listed Lenovo Group as the sole representative of "Event AI and Computing Power Foundation" enterprises for this World Cup, stating that only brands with genuine global business undertaking capabilities, technology export capabilities, or long-term internationalization strategies can remain on the field.