Eva Longoria is lending her star power to a new global drive to boost small businesses, fronting Lenovo and Intel’s Backing Every Business campaign that pairs budding founders with mentors, AI-enabled tools and a $10,000 grant boost. The initiative, which the Desperate Housewives actress described to the Press Association this week, aims to link like-minded entrepreneurs through a “business twinning” model and raise the profile of a select number of founders with hands-on support.
Longoria said the entrepreneurial mindset that underpins the campaign is rooted in her upbringing. “I grew up with amazing women in my life – my aunt, my mum – all independent, intelligent, educated women,” she told PA. “I always knew I’d be successful because every woman around me was successful. I didn’t know what industry I would be in … but I knew I’d be successful.” Her role in Backing Every Business is an extension of what she called her “life’s work” supporting female entrepreneurs, particularly in Latino communities, and of her ongoing work with small businesses through the Eva Longoria Foundation.
The Backing Every Business programme will provide selected founders with mentorship from Longoria and others, access to AI-powered technology supplied by the partners, and $10,000 in grant funding. Lenovo and Intel say the campaign is designed to connect entrepreneurs who can learn from and amplify one another — the “twinning” concept intended to foster lasting business relationships as well as immediate resource support.
Longoria also used the interview to flag wider questions about technology’s role in the creative and media landscape. “AI is definitely at the forefront of everybody’s mind in the media landscape,” she said, adding that people are still trying to decide whether AI is primarily a tool that helps make better content or a competitor that may replace jobs. She singled out concerns about misinformation: “Where AI makes me nervous is in the manufacturing of news and information … images that can rile up communities and countries against another country that may not be true.”
The campaign comes as Longoria continues to diversify her career beyond acting: she noted that while “the tent pole of my circus is still acting,” she has taken stakes in sport, including part-ownership of Mexican club Club Necaxa and investment in women’s team Angel City FC. Longoria said balancing business ventures with authenticity is crucial: she still chooses projects that feel true to her, even as she pursues entrepreneurial and philanthropic aims.
Backing Every Business follows a growing trend of corporations and celebrities teaming to support startups and community enterprises, combining funding, publicity and new technologies. For Longoria, the initiative reflects a longer-term commitment to elevating entrepreneurs — especially those from underrepresented communities — while also grappling publicly with the double-edged nature of AI in media and public life.