Phygital International (PI), the global promoter of phygital sports and rights holder of the Games of the Future, today announced Alibaba Cloud, a leading global provider of AI infrastructure and the intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, as the Official Cloud Infrastructure Partner of the Games of the Future 2026 and 2027, marking a significant step in strengthening the technology infrastructure behind the world’s leading phygital sporting event.
Under the partnership, Alibaba Cloud will become the trusted provider of cloud infrastructure, data hosting and management services across the Games of the Future ecosystem. For the Games of the Future 2026, Alibaba Cloud will provide the cloud infrastructure supporting the event and host its central broadcast content library, enabling broadcasters around the world to securely access media assets throughout the Games. Beginning with Games of the Future 2027, Alibaba Cloud will also manage global media rights distribution, supporting the delivery of live coverage to broadcast partners worldwide.
As the world’s leading phygital sporting event continues to grow its global audience, the partnership will help deliver reliable, scalable cloud infrastructure capable of supporting international broadcast operations, digital platforms and media workflows throughout the competition.
In addition to powering the Games behind the scenes, Alibaba Cloud will receive Official Cloud Infrastructure Partner designation, alongside branding and broadcast integration opportunities throughout the Games of the Future 2026.
Spencer Fields, Commercial Director at Phygital International, said: “Technology sits at the heart of phygital sport, making world-class digital infrastructure essential to delivering the Games of the Future on a global stage. Alibaba Cloud’s expertise will help ensure that fans, broadcasters and partners around the world can experience Games of the Future Astana 2026 through reliable, secure and scalable technology. As the event continues to grow internationally, partnerships like this play an important role in building the foundation for the future of sport.”
Eric Wan, Vice President of International Business, General Manager of Middle East, Turkey and the Central Asia, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence said: “The Games of the Future represents a bold new frontier where physical athleticism and digital competition converge — and that demands infrastructure built for both scale and speed. Alibaba Cloud is proud to bring our global cloud network, AI capabilities and deep expertise in live-event broadcasting to support Phygital International’s vision. From secure media asset management to real-time content delivery across continents, our technology will help bring the excitement of the Games to fans and broadcasters worldwide, no matter where they are.”
The Games of the Future 2026 will take place in Astana from July 29 to August 9, bringing together more than 800 athletes spanning over 50 nationalities to compete across eight phygital sports and esports disciplines for a prize pool of more than US$4 million.
Bringing together elite sporting clubs, top athletes and leading esports organizations, the Games of the Future combines competitive gaming with live athletic performance across a single discipline, creating a new format of competition that challenges athletes to excel in both physical and digital environments.
The partnership with Alibaba Cloud reflects Phygital International’s continued commitment to working with world-leading technology organizations to deliver an exceptional experience for athletes, broadcasters, partners and fans. By strengthening the cloud infrastructure behind the Games, the collaboration will help support seamless global content delivery and reinforce the technological foundations that underpin phygital sport.
To stay up to date with the latest news on the Games of the Future 2026, follow @gamesofthefutureofficial on social media or visit the official Games of the Future website. Fans can also relive the action from last year and catch all the action from this year’s Games in Astana on Phygital+, Phygital International’s dedicated Direct-to-Consumer platform.
Phygital International is the promoter of phygital sports globally and is focused on innovating and redefining sports. It is the custodian and rights holder of the Games of the Future and oversees the bidding process for each host city.
For further information please visit: https://Phygitalinternational.com
About the Games of the Future (GOTF)
The Games of the Future is an annual international event that fuses the worlds of physical and digital and is the pinnacle of phygital sport. The tournament brings together the next generation of phygital sporting heroes from all over the world to compete in a diverse range of phygital disciplines and challenges. The Games of the Future 2025 will be held in Abu Dhabi while the Games of the Future 2026, will be held in Astana.
For more information please visit: https://gofuture.games/
About Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is a global leader in full-stack AI+Cloud solutions. It offers a comprehensive suite of flexible, scalable and secure cloud services built on a three-tiered architecture of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Model-as-a-Service (MaaS). Alibaba Cloud empowers enterprises worldwide with its full-stack AI capabilities, powered by Qwen (Chinese: Qianwen), a family of large language and multimodal AI models developed by Alibaba. Debuted in 2023, Qwen models are available to global developers via HuggingFace (open-weight) or through API on Model Studio, Alibaba’s one-stop, enterprise-grade AI development platform offering access to the full suite of Qwen foundation models.
diya@marylebonecommunications.com
Marylebone Communications
