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≡ GOOGLE TIE-UP WITH LA28 ≡
The LA28 organizing committee scored a major addition to their sponsor ranks with technology giant Google signing on as a top-tier Founding Partner:
“Google joins LA28 as a Founding Partner, delivering consumer and enterprise solutions that will enhance the Games time experience for millions of fans, athletes and more than 70,000 volunteers and members of the workforce who will help welcome the world to Los Angeles.
“By integrating Google technologies across Google Search, Google Cloud and more – including advanced AI tools like Gemini – this partnership will seamlessly connect fans, staff and athletes to the LA28 Games.”
It was only a matter of time for an Olympic sponsorship featuring artificial intelligence was signed and LA28 is the first, along with another major technology category: cloud storage. The deal includes Google Cloud as be the Official Cloud Provider of the LA28 Games.
Further, Google will be involved with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, “supporting Team USA with advanced tools” and with domestic rights-holding broadcaster NBC, “transforming how fans in the US discover information during NBCUniversal’s coverage.”
For the LA28 organizers, this is another key sponsorship piece and a significant strike in the technology sector:
● It’s the fifth top-level Founding Partner-level deal, with Comcast and Delta joining before the pandemic and Honda, Starbucks and now Google in 2025.
● The Google agreement shows LA28’s ability to attract highest-level support in the high-tech sector, after signing software giant Salesforce as a Founding Partner in 2021, only to see it withdraw in 2024 (at a parting cost of $124.93 million).
● LA28 previously signed networking equipment giant Cisco as an Official Partner (second-tier), in June of 2024, and Official Supporters from the tech sector in Autodesk, CDW and Snowflake.
The organizing committee has a $2.517 billion budget for domestic sponsorships for 2028 and has said it is confident that it can achieve the $2.0 billion level by the end of 2025. This will certainly help.
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This sponsorship may well reverberate all the way to Washington, D.C.
On 10 September, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the Olympic role of the Chinese communications giant Alibaba Group, an IOC TOP sponsor:
“We write to express serious concern about the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) ongoing partnership with Alibaba Group and the implications of allowing a People’s Republic of China (PRC)-based cloud provider to support the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.”
The concerns were clearly stated:
● “[T]he presence of any PRC-controlled technology company in operational roles for LA 2028 creates an unacceptable risk. Alibaba’s provision of cloud infrastructure, e-commerce, ticketing, and broadcasting services in prior Olympics has already given the company substantial access to systems and personnel. This risk is heightened by the nature of the CCP’s influence over PRC-based companies and the increasing geopolitical tension surrounding critical technology platforms.”
● “Given the CCP’s clear strategic interest in exploiting foreign data systems, we believe that no PRC-controlled provider should be given any operational role unless the U.S. Government can verify the implementation of robust and demonstrable security controls – if such controls are even possible.”
Alibaba has been an IOC sponsor since 2017 and French authorities were extremely concerned about its role at Paris 2024 Games; an agreement on data handling and storage was ultimately reached. Alibaba hosts IOC Web sites, its e-commerce platform and other functions.
Will Google now take on the “Olympic Cloud” program for worldwide broadcasters, pioneered by Alibaba, for 2028?
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