Just announced! The first official AI in Olympic history is entrusted to Alibaba Qianwen

February 5, 2026, Milan, Italy.

On the eve of the Winter Olympics opening, a major announcement was transmitted from Milan.

The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, officially announced: Based on Alibaba’s Qianwen large model, the creation of the world’s first “Official Large Model” for the Olympics!

Bach highly praised it: “A transformative partner.” He believes that, thanks to Chinese technological support, the Milan Winter Olympics will become the most intelligent Olympics in history.

This signifies that, following the replacement of satellite communication by cloud computing as the “new infrastructure” of the Olympics, Chinese AI technology has officially become the “core brain” driving top global events.

From “Cloud Olympics” to “AI Olympics”

This partnership was no coincidence but the result of nine years of technological validation and trust accumulation.

Since becoming a TOP partner in 2017, Alibaba has spent nine years completing a technological leap from “Cloud Olympics” to “AI Olympics”:

2018 Pyeongchang: Launched OBS Cloud project, attempting cloud broadcasting;

2021 Tokyo: Achieved global cloud broadcasting for the first time;

2022 Beijing: Core systems fully migrated to the cloud;

2024 Paris: Cloud broadcasting surpasses satellites, becoming mainstream;

2026 Milan: Deep integration of AI and cloud, fully taking over the event technology foundation.

Looking back to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, it was the first time the world used American Syncom satellites to transmit signals, establishing Western technological standards. Today, 62 years later, the Milan Winter Olympics fully adopt Chinese technology.

From “taking a ship abroad” to “building a ship and going abroad,” Chinese companies have firmly positioned themselves at the center of the technological arena.

Solving World-Class Challenges

As the most geographically extensive Winter Olympics in history, the Milan Games presented unprecedented logistical challenges. The entry of Chinese AI solved pain points that traditional technologies could not overcome.

On the operational side, breaking down the “Tower of Babel.”

The “National Olympic Committee AI Assistant” built on the Qianwen large model has been launched in China, Brazil, Sweden, and 8 other countries and regions. It has read through millions of words of official manuals, relying on powerful multilingual understanding capabilities, allowing national delegations to ask questions in their native languages and receive precise answers—from qualification review to logistics scheduling—greatly improving event operation efficiency.

On the broadcasting side, tackling “visual blind spots.”

Winter Olympics broadcasts often face challenges like uniform snowfield textures and difficulty capturing high-speed actions. Alibaba Cloud uses AI multi-model fusion algorithms to achieve high-precision reconstruction of snow scenes. Global audiences will see clearer “bullet time” freeze-frame shots—another showcase of Chinese AI technology’s strength in graphics and image processing.

Additionally, Alibaba Cloud’s “Energy Saver” new energy tracking system provides a digital handle for the sustainability of the Milan Winter Olympics. Chinese Academician of Engineering and Alibaba Cloud founder Wang Jian once said, “Intelligent systems that do not reduce resource consumption are insincere.” In Milan, Chinese enterprises are delivering on this sincerity.

Leading the Global Open Source Ecosystem

The IOC’s choice of Alibaba essentially reflects a choice of China’s自主研发硬核科技实力.

In 2008, to reduce reliance on overseas IT infrastructure, Alibaba engineers wrote the first lines of code for the “Flying Sky” system. From moving away from IOE (IBM, Oracle, EMC) to developing their own cloud operating system, and to over 400 open-source models released by Tongyi Laboratory in 2023, Chinese companies have embarked on a difficult but correct path of自主创新.

IOC AI Assistant

Data shows that by October 2025, the Qianwen (Qwen) large model’s downloads surpassed Meta’s Llama model, becoming a leader in the global open-source AI market. From Stanford research teams to Silicon Valley unicorns, developers worldwide are using Chinese large models for innovation.

The “Official Large Model” for the Milan Winter Olympics is a microcosm of China’s AI technology from “follower” to “leader.”

Behind the “Firm Choice”

In 2008, the Beijing Olympics showcased the revival of an ancient civilization, and at that time, Chinese enterprises were more about “being seen.”

By 2026, at the Milan Winter Olympics, Chinese private enterprises, with irreplaceable technological strength, have been “firmly chosen” by the IOC.

This marks a milestone in China’s digital economy infrastructure development. From new energy vehicles and photovoltaics to large aircraft, and now AI and cloud computing, Chinese industries are winning their ticket to the top of the world stage with “hard power” as a group army.

Making the Olympics smarter, making the world more inclusive—that is the era’s answer from Chinese technology.