Home brands sharpen sport sponsorship

When the 2026 FIFA World Cup officially kicked off across the United States, Canada and Mexico this month, Chinese brands are less visible among top-tier sponsors than they were four years ago.

Only three Chinese companies — Lenovo, Hisense and Mengniu Dairy — remain among FIFA partners and FIFA World Cup sponsors, a sharp contrast to the wave of Chinese sponsorship that dominated stadium billboards during recent tournaments.

Yet the shift comes despite FIFA reporting its strongest commercial performance on record. The governing body said in March that all 16 global sponsorship positions for the 2023–26 cycle had been sold, making it the most successful commercial program in its history. Total revenue for the cycle is budgeted at nearly $13 billion.

But business leaders and researchers say the decline in sponsorship numbers does not signal waning interest from Chinese companies. Instead, it reflects a broader shift in how Chinese companies are using global sporting events to support going global strategies.

Rather than buying visibility alone, companies are increasingly treating the World Cup as a platform to demonstrate technology capabilities, strengthen brand positioning, deepen consumer engagement and expand their global footprint.

"It is a transition from a traffic-driven mindset to an effectiveness-driven mindset," said Hu Shan, principal at consultancy company Roland Berger. "Companies are paying much closer attention to return on investment and alignment with their global expansion strategies."

For Qiao Jian, senior vice-president of Lenovo, the shift can be summed up as a move from participants to co-builders.

"What Chinese companies export today is no longer a single product," said Qiao, who is also chief strategy officer and chief marketing officer of Lenovo.

"Increasingly, they are exporting integrated technology capabilities and becoming part of the infrastructure that powers global events."

The shift is becoming increasingly visible at the World Cup, where Chinese companies are moving beyond traditional sponsorship and embedding themselves into tournament operations.

For Lenovo, whose annual revenue reached a record $83.1 billion in fiscal year 2025/26, the World Cup serves as a showcase for its hybrid AI strategy as it seeks to expand higher-margin infrastructure and enterprise businesses globally. AI-related revenue accounted for roughly one-third of Lenovo's revenue during the past fiscal year.

Lenovo, FIFA's official technology partner, is supplying more than 17,000 devices and deploying more than 350 engineers across all 16 World Cup venues. The company is also introducing AI-powered digital twin technology capable of generating three-dimensional replicas of players and match situations.

"The World Cup is the world's largest AI testing ground," Qiao said.

She said the company views the tournament as an opportunity to demonstrate how its end-to-end AI infrastructure can support one of the most complex global events ever staged, far more than a conventional marketing campaign.