Artificial Intelligence will “play” football at the America’s World Cup

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is anticipated to be a transformative global event, surpassing even the Olympic Games in its impact, with sports projected to generate $3.7 trillion by 2030.
The tournament will feature 48 teams competing in 104 matches across 16 cities, anticipated to draw over 6 billion viewers—representing 75% of the world’s population—and a total stadium attendance of 6.5 million.
Expected economic contributions include $41 billion to global GDP and the creation of over 800,000 jobs, particularly in sectors like aviation, tourism, and social media.
The event will be described as the first “AI World Cup,” with AI systems analyzing performance data in real-time and digital twins, robots, and autonomous vehicles playing significant roles.
Data generation will be monumental, with live tournament data alone expected to exceed 90 petabytes, while including simulations and broadcasts, the total could reach 2 exabytes—the equivalent of 45,000 years of 4K video.