The FIFA World Cup 2026 is well underway, with the group stages already generating huge amounts of action for fans across the world.
It’s been widely highlighted how this is the biggest edition of the tournament so far, with an expanded roster of 48 teams doing battle in 16 venues across three countries. But with such a sprawling reach, the technology needed to power such a crucial tournament has never been more important – and that’s where Lenovo comes in.
As FIFA’s official technology partner, Lenovo has provided the technical expertise to keep the tournament running, and power some of the most exciting new innovations such as AI Refcam – I went to find out more.
An unprecedented challenge
“We were given a challenge which is unprecedented for the game,” Ken Wong – EVP and President, SSG, Lenovo, tells me in Miami.
“For anyone that is going to be a single point of contact for such a complex project, there will be a lot of questions…but after two weeks of operations, I think we have delivered what we promised.”
Wong highlights how the technology being built and delivered to FIFA is actually Lenovo’s own in-house hybrid platform and delivery platforms, so the company was confident about the capabilities it could provide – and then, Wong says, hand it over to FIFA, “to make magic happen.”
As Wong notes, “keeping the lights on is a given”, and Lenovo has deployed more than 350 engineers to World Cup sites, including the stadiums and its Technology Command Center in Miami, with the company providing around 17,000 devices to ensure a resolute and powerful backbone for all the tournament’s operations.
The technology has (at least at the time of writing) been one of the biggest success stories of the World Cup 2026, with fans around the world praising the immersiveness of the Refcam and realistic VAR avatars.
“It’s not only about technology – without outcome it is meaningless,” Wong notes, with the company looking to provide a fan experience “like never before”.
“Our role is to make sure based on our understanding of the technology in the platform – how we can maximize the flexibility and outcome for our customer? Now it’s up to FIFA to use it.”
The “power of AI”
I ask Wong if the World Cup 2026 can be a good use case for responsible AI deployment, boosting everything from the fan experience to broadcast quality to more effective ground logistics and operations.
“Customers are often so focused on, do I have the most powerful model – but more and more, when AI is moving from POC to production and scale, the more people understand the importance of data,” he says.
Any complex operation that involves a massive amount of data can be a vital learning experience, Wong says – naming building or facilities operations all the way up to smart city oversight as possible use cases which can be extrapolated from the World Cup use case.
Lenovo has even established sports as one of its focus verticals, with the company also partnering with the likes of Formula 1, the Olympics, NHL, Serie A and more.
“We have confidence that we can provide a great outcome, for other organizations within the sports industry, be it a stadium or fans experience, or a whole federation,” he adds.
So with the tournament still underway at the time of writing, Lenovo might be hoping, paradoxically, that its technology stays out of the headlines for the time being – as that will mean everything is working smoothly, with no errors or controversies.
“We are the technology backbone of FIFA,” Wong notes, “our AI is powering the World Cup! To me, the real meaning is that we’re part of the great game, but also it is proven now that Lenovo technology can be applied to the most complex operation in the world.”
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