Since the sudden shutdown by Covid-19, many Chinese companies that once hosted CES have pulled out amid expanded travel restrictions and growing political tensions. But Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, stands out as an exception, charging ahead in the US market as the presence of many of its Chinese peers has faded. This year, Lenovo took center stage at CES 2026, hosting its annual product launch event, Tech World, at Las Vegas’ coolest venue: The Sphere.
This two-hour event yesterday (Jan. 6) attracted everyone’s attention. Lasers cut through the darkness as 16K video bathes the Sphere’s large, curved screen, enveloping the audience in light and sound. The show doubled as a showcase of Lenovo’s collaboration with Sphere Studios, which produces local content. Behind the scenes, Lenovo workstations, servers and services have enabled high-resolution visuals, enabling real-time rendering and AI-assisted creative workflows built for immersive live shows and cinema-scale productions.
Unlike many of its peers, Lenovo likes to co-market with other big tech brands, often inviting their top 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 delivered their own keynote at CES earlier in the week.
Throughout the presentation, Lenovo introduced a wide range of products and platforms. The announcements focus on what Lenovo calls Hybrid AI, led by Qira, the “super agent” of personal AI, alongside a number of AI platforms and services designed for consumers and businesses.
On the hardware side, the company introduced new AI PCs across its Yoga, IdeaPad, ThinkPad and ThinkCentre Aura Edition lines, as well as new flagship Motorola smartphones, including the FIFA World Cup 2026 special-edition Razr. Lenovo also showcased several rollable and wearable computing devices, as well as new ThinkSystem and ThinkEdge servers and an AI Cloud Gigafactory developed with Nvidia for large-scale AI infrastructure.
Lenovo’s product push in the US
In recent years, Tech World has evolved into one of the industry’s most watched conferences, differing from traditional product launches in both scope and ambition. Lenovo used the event not only to launch new devices but to outline its vision of where its industry is headed.
Apart from technology, Lenovo is increasingly associated with high-end sports brands to strengthen its presence in the US market. It is the official partner of the FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America and is the main sponsor of Formula 1. During yesterday’s event, Lenovo hosted a ticket raffle giving attendees the chance to win an all-inclusive ticket to the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup (its prices are at a historic high). FIFA President Gianni Infantino also appeared on stage during the launch.
Lenovo sells personal computers, servers, monitors and smartphones, and Yang has long included the US as a key market. “We want to be like that a solid number.3 in North America,” he told Reuters in an interview in 2021. Today, Lenovo trails HP and Dell in the US PC market. American consumers make up less than 20 percent of Lenovo’s revenue, Yang told Reuters in August.
In the years leading up to 2020, Chinese companies have dominated CES, often accounting for a third or more of all exhibitors. At CES 2018, more than 1,500 Chinese firms attended the exhibition. By 2023, the first year after China fully reopened, that number had dropped to less than 500. Although participation has since rebounded, it remains below pre-Covid levels, and several major Chinese technology companies, including Huawei, DJI and Alibaba, have been notably absent in recent years.
