For the reason that abrupt halt introduced on by Covid-19, most Chinese language firms that after dominated CES have retreated amid prolonged journey restrictions and rising geopolitical tensions. However Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, stands out as a notable exception, charging forward within the U.S. market even because the presence of lots of its Chinese language friends has pale. This 12 months, Lenovo claimed middle stage at CES 2026, internet hosting its annual product launch occasion, Tech World, at Las Vegas’s coolest venue: the Sphere.
The 2-hour occasion yesterday (Jan. 6) held the viewers’s consideration all through. Lasers reduce via the darkness as 16K video washed throughout the Sphere’s huge, curved display screen, wrapping the viewers in mild and sound. The spectacle doubled as an illustration of Lenovo’s partnership with Sphere Studios, which produces content material for the venue. Behind the scenes, Lenovo workstations, servers and providers powered the ultra-high-resolution visuals, enabling real-time rendering and A.I.-assisted artistic workflows constructed for immersive stay reveals and cinematic-scale manufacturing.
Not like lots of its friends, Lenovo loves co-marketing with different main tech manufacturers, typically inviting their senior executives to share the stage. Yesterday, Lenovo chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang was joined by Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Huang and Su had delivered their very own CES keynotes earlier within the week.
All through the presentation, Lenovo unveiled a broad slate of merchandise and platforms. The bulletins centered on what Lenovo calls Hybrid A.I., led by Qira, a cross-device private A.I. “tremendous agent,” alongside a full stack of A.I. platforms and providers designed for each shoppers and enterprises.
On the {hardware} facet, the corporate launched new A.I. PCs throughout its Yoga, IdeaPad, ThinkPad and ThinkCentre Aura Version strains, together with new Motorola flagship smartphones, together with a FIFA World Cup 2026 special-edition Razr. Lenovo additionally showcased a number of rollable and wearable idea units, in addition to new ThinkSystem and ThinkEdge servers and an A.I. Cloud Gigafactory developed with Nvidia for large-scale A.I. infrastructure deployments.
Lenovo’s model push within the U.S.
In recent times, Tech World has advanced into one of many business’s extra intently watched conferences, distinct from conventional product launches in each scope and ambition. Lenovo has used the occasion not solely to introduce new units however to border its view of the place its business is headed.
Past expertise, Lenovo has more and more aligned itself with high-profile sports activities manufacturers to strengthen its foothold within the U.S. market. It’s an official companion of the FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America and a significant sponsor of Formulation 1. Throughout yesterday’s occasion, Lenovo hosted a ticket raffle providing attendees an opportunity to win an all-inclusive ticket to FIFA World Cup quarterfinal matches (whose costs are at a historic excessive). FIFA President Gianni Infantino additionally appeared onstage in the course of the presentation.
Lenovo sells private computer systems, servers, displays and smartphones, and Yang has lengthy framed the U.S. as an vital market. “We need to be a stable no.3 in North America,” he advised Reuters in a 2021 interview. Right this moment, Lenovo trails HP and Dell within the U.S. PC market. American shoppers account for lower than 20 p.c of Lenovo’s complete income, Yang advised Reuters in August.
Within the years main as much as 2020, Chinese language firms had been a dominant drive at CES, typically accounting for a 3rd or extra of all exhibitors. At CES 2018, greater than 1,500 Chinese language companies attended the present. By 2023, the primary 12 months after China absolutely reopened, that quantity had fallen to fewer than 500. Whereas participation has rebounded since then, it stays under pre-Covid ranges, and a number of other main Chinese language expertise firms, together with Huawei, DJI and Alibaba, had been notably absent in recent times.
