🥇 The Business Of The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics

In today’s newsletter I discuss the business of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, Paramount Skydance raises their offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, the rich are trying to live forever, the trailer for the new Scream 7 movie is out, a company Google started in their X Labs just raised funding at a $1.3 billion dollar valuation, Figma is working with AI company Anthropic to turn AI-generated code into editable designs - so there goes the entire design industry! JPMorgan Chase endorses Ripple's XRP, and Team USA won more gold medals than in any other Winter Olympics in history!

Let’s get into it!

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🥇 The Business Of The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics

The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics were a massive undertaking that involved billions of dollars and thousands of people to make the games successful. The world turned its attention to the mountains and cities of northern Italy where the best athletes on the planet competed for glory, and for some financial rewards in the form of cash and brand endorsements. Organizing an event of this magnitude requires a complex balance of public and private funding, and the impact it can have on the host country can lift the nation’s entire economy. We’re diving into the financials behind hosting the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the economic impact of the games on Italy’s economy, how much athletes from different countries get for medaling in these games, and NBC’s 12-year, $7.65 billion dollar contract and what it takes to cover both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Let’s get into it.

The responsibility of organizing and managing the $1.7 billion dollar budget to put on the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy fell to one person - Andrea Varnier, who served as the CEO of Italy’s Olympic organizing committee. These Winter Olympics were originally budgeted to cost $1.3 billion dollars, but that number quickly grew to more than $1.7 billion dollars by the time the games kicked off. Italy utilized a combination of $4.19 billion dollars in public money for infrastructure and construction projects across Italy, including the $141.3 million dollars spent on renovating the sliding center in Cortina, and the approximately $359 million dollars used for the new construction of the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan, Italy where both the gold medal matches of the Men’s and Women’s hockey games were held. When you add up the total price tag for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, it’s estimated to be around $6 billion dollars when all the regional costs and infrastructure projects are tallied up. That’s more than 3 times the original budget, but most of the project and facilities that were built will be used in the future, so it’s more of an investment in Italy’s future.

The economic impact of The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics is expected to be substantial over the long term as Italy recovers its investments through increased tourism and the new jobs the Olympics have brought to the country. Some financial experts estimate that the total economic value generated by the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics could reach $6.26 billion dollars for Italy’s economy. This includes $1.4 billion dollars in direct spending from tourists who visited the region during the games, and continued tourism for the next eighteen months that typically follow the Olympics. The games were also credited with creating 36,000 jobs in northern Italy, and providing a boost to small businesses in the municipalities located near the sports venues. Local governments were allowed to collect higher tourist taxes to help fund public services, and maintain the new facilities that'll be used by residents for many years to come. Italy’s hope is that the investment in high speed internet and fiber optic connections, and improved transportation, will make these mountain communities a more welcoming and popular place for young people and new businesses to relocate to after the crowds have gone home. The success of the local economy depended on the ability of these regions to continue to attract visitors long after the Olympic torch has been put out.

Olympic athletes who won medals during The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will all receive different cash payouts depending on which country they represented at the games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) doesn’t pay athletes who compete or medal in the games. Athletes from the United States receive $37,500 dollars for a gold medal, $22,500 dollars for a silver medal, and $15,000 dollars for a bronze medal. The Canadian Olympic Committee pays Canadian athletes $20,000 dollars for a gold medal, $15,000 dollars for a silver medal, and $10,000 dollars for a bronze medal. On top of that, the Canadian health care tech entrepreneur Sanjay Malaviya donated an additional $5,000 dollars to each Canadian athlete that medals at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics through his Malaviya Foundation, which provides direct financial support to the athletes who represent Canada on the global stage. Then there are some countries that pay much higher amounts, like Singapore which would have paid alpine skier Faiz Basha $788,000 dollars for a gold medal, but sadly he finished 35th overall in the Men's Slalom event. Tough break! But Singapore isn’t alone in offering an astronomical amount to athletes from their country if they won a gold medal. Hong Kong was willing to pay $768,000 dollars for a gold medal, but the closest their athletes came was the seventh place finish by Hong Kong speed skater Joey Lam Ching-yan in the women's 1,500m short-track speed skating final, which makes her performance the highest-ever placing by a Hong Kong athlete in Winter Olympic history. Then we have the host nation of Italy, which will pay their ten gold medalists $214,000 dollars each for their wins, Federica Brignone won gold medals in both the women's super-G and giant slalom, so she’ll be bringing home a check worth $428,000 dollars from the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. All of these financial rewards from athlete’s countries are a recognition of the incredible dedication and hard work that they put in order to reach the top of their sports on the world stage.

NBC, owned by Comcast, holds the exclusive broadcasting rights for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics as part of a massive long-term 12-year agreement with the International Olympic Committee that extends through the year 2032. NBC paid $7.65 billion dollars to secure this contract, which covers every Summer and Winter Olympics for 12-years ending with the Brisbane, Australia Olympics in 2032. NBC has invested heavily in a permanent broadcast center in Connecticut to manage the thousands of hours of live Olympic content, without needing to recreate their broadcast studio every 2-years to cover the next Olympics. Smart!

NBC has developed a massive digital infrastructure worldwide to support the live streaming capabilities of the Peacock application. The network utilizes more than 810 camera systems bringing high definition video from every event to viewers in the United States. This setup allows for the first ever Winter Olympics 4K experience by viewers. The video system generated 6,500 hours of live content, and made it available for on demand viewing and live streaming. And you better believe NBC monetized every minute of that video. NBC sold out all of its available commercial slots, with brands paying around $8 million dollars for a 30-second commercial. This once again proves there is continued demand for live sports content, which is why NBC has made sports a central pillar of their broadcasting strategy.

All of these investments by NBC have paid off big time!

NBC's coverage of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics smashed records. The games averaged 23.5 million viewers across NBC’s TV and Peacock streaming service, and represented Peacock’s highest month of viewership ever. NBC’s audience more than doubled from their coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. 

The business side of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics shows that while the costs of hosting an Olympics might be sky high, the economic rewards for the host country, their athletes, NBC, and viewers around the world, make it all worth it.

Quick Hits

💵 Business

Paramount Skydance just submitted a sweetened bid of $32 dollars per share to acquire all of Warner Bros. Discovery for approximately $115 billion dollars. This is $32.3 billion dollars more than Netflix’s offer of $82.7 billion dollars for just Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets, but not their TV unit, which includes such channels as Discovery, TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, TBS, TNT, TruTV, and OWN,

Paramount Skydance’s CEO David Ellison is so confident in his offer that he’s included a $2.8 billion termination fee payable to Netflix, as well as a fee of $650 million dollars a quarter payable to Warner Bros. Discovery if the merger faces regulatory delays. David Ellison’s dad, Oracle Founder Larry Ellison, is also providing all the financial backing for the bid to, you know, ease shareholder’s concerns. Nothing like having dad step in to help when you’re trying to buy a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate.

🔪 Entertainment

The trailer for the new Scream 7 movie is out. Original cast member Neve Campbell is back reprising her role as Sidney Prescott, who must protect her daughter Tatum, played by Isabel May, from a new Ghostface in Pine Grove. Also reprising their roles from the original movie are Courteney Cox and Jason Lillard, which will be interesting to see how they bring his character back since everyone thought he died in the original Scream movie.

📡 Tech

Alphabet just announced a new $100 million dollar funding round for a company they spun-out back in 2022 called Aalyria. This funding round values Aalyria at $1.3 billion dollars. Aalyria was originally created over a decade ago as one of Alphabet's advanced technology projects under the umbrella of Google X Labs.

Aalyria seeks to compete with companies including SpaceX’s Starlink, founded by Elon Musk, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which was founded by Jeff Bezos. Aalyria has developed a laser communications system that can create a high speed mesh network in space. Aalyria uses software called Spacetime, and hardware called Tightbeam, to manage connections between planes, ships, and space-based assets.

I guess you could say that Aalyria’s new valuation is out of space! (sorry for the dad joke)

🎨 AI

Graphic design software company Figma is working with AI company Anthropic to turn AI-generated code into editable designs. The new tool is called “Code to Canvas” (not very original I agree), and it transforms code into editable designs. The idea behind this is to make the images generated in Anthropic editable within Figma, so save time by full-time Designers, and make it easier for novices to create the same high fidelity designs create by professionals with 20+ years of experience.

I have mixed feelings about this, since I own a design firm named Branded AF. It’s great that design software is becoming more accessible to creators, but those Designers with 20+ years of experience have learned their craft through 10,000+ hours of hands-on experience creating designs that now any kid in a college dorm room can generate in seconds. If we make Designers obsolete, then everything will begin to look like AI-generated slop, and the world will be worse off.

🪙 Crypto

JPMorgan Chase just published a report that identifies Ripple's XRP as the top digital asset for use by global financial institutions. I read the report so you don’t have it. It says that JPMorgan Chase believes that Ripple's XRP can help them, and other banks, to unlock $120 billion dollars in liquidity a day by providing faster settlement times than the traditional systems currently can. That’s literally the entire argument set forth by Rippl’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who argues that Ripple's XRP can be used for cross-border cash settlements in seconds, instead of the 24+ hours payment networks like SWIFT now take to settle the same transactions. The global cross border payment market was worth $194 trillion dollars in 2024, and is expected to exceed $320 trillion dollars by 2032. Now that’s a market worth disrupting!

💊 Health

Are you rich and want to live forever? Well there’s a new longevity program called Immortals that costs $1 million dollars per year, and there’s only 3 spots left. The Immortals program was created by Bryan Johnson, who sold his payment processing company Braintree to PayPal in 2013 for $800 million dollars. Now Bryan Johnson spends $2 million dollars a year trying to reduce his biological age, by following an intensive health protocol he designed has him taking 100 daily supplements and undergoing rigorous medical testing. Now if only I had $1 million dollars laying around.

🇺🇸 Sports

Team USA finished the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics with a total of 33 medals, including 12 gold medals, 12 silver medals, and 9 bronze medals. This is the highest gold medal count Team USA has ever won in a Winter Olympics. The U.S. Olympic Committee will be giving out cash rewards to athletes like Nathan Chen and Alysa Liu who medal in the games. Athletes are paid $37,500 dollars for gold medals, $22,500 dollars for silver medals, and $15,000 dollars for bronze medals. This is on top of the multi-million dollar brand endorsement deals that Olympic athletes usually sign after winning a medal. It pays to be on Team USA!

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The Business Behind The News is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.