Al Jazeera asked nine leading AI models to predict the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup champion based on data including team strength, squad quality, coaching, historical performance, and performance during the current tournament. France emerged as the favourite, receiving five of the nine champion votes (Gemini, Grock, DeepSeek, Le Chat and Qwen), while defending champion Argentina received the remaining four votes (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Meta AI). For runner-up predictions, France and Argentina each received three votes, followed by England with two and Spain with one. Spain was the clear favourite to finish third, receiving six of the nine third-place predictions, while England and France each received fewer votes. The predictions reflect a broad AI consensus around the four remaining contenders: France, Argentina, Spain and England. The tournament has reached the semifinals, with France facing Spain on July 14 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and England meeting Argentina on July 15 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The third-place playoff will be on July 18, and the World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.