What Disney Research does

Disney Research is an internal research division of The Walt Disney Company, established in 2008 and operating an international network of laboratories in Los Angeles (headquarters), Zürich, and historically Pittsburgh. Its stated mandate is to inject scientific and technological innovation across Disney's businesses, with research concentrated in four domains: robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, visual computing, and immersive / human-computer interaction technologies. The division publishes at leading academic venues including SIGGRAPH, ICRA, CHI, UIST, CVPR, NeurIPS, and IVA, and its innovations have earned Academy Sci-Tech Awards for the Medusa performance capture system and Disney streaming technology.

Disney Research's portfolio includes the BDX Droids (Star Wars-themed bipedal entertainment robots), the Newton open-source GPU-accelerated physics engine co-developed with NVIDIA and Google DeepMind and contributed to the Linux Foundation, the Robot Motion Diffusion Model and AMOR multi-objective reinforcement learning framework for robotic character control, and the Medusa performance capture system. Outputs are deployed internally across Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney Streaming, ABC, ESPN, StudioLAB, and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, with external visibility maintained through open-source releases, academic publications, and demonstrations at events such as NVIDIA GTC.

Disney Research does not sell products or services externally and has no standalone pricing model or reported revenue. Its economic model is that of a corporate R&D cost center funded by The Walt Disney Company, with technology transfer into Disney's operating business units serving as the primary value realization mechanism. External monetization is limited to reputational and ecosystem benefits from open-source contributions (e.g., Newton reaching over 250,000 robotics developers via the Linux Foundation and NVIDIA Isaac Lab) and from talent attraction associated with academic visibility.

Name

Disney Research

Legal name

Disney Research

Website

https://disneyresearch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Disney Research is the internal R&D division of The Walt Disney Company, conducting fundamental and applied research in robotics, machine learning and AI, visual computing, and immersive technologies, with outputs transferred into Disney's theme parks, film studios, and streaming platforms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Disney Research is an internal R&D division of The Walt Disney Company that conducts applied research in robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual computing, computer graphics, and immersive experiences. Its research outputs are transferred to Disney's entertainment business units (theme parks, studios, streaming) and shared via academic publications and open-source releases.

Product overview

Disney Research is a research organization that drives technological innovation across the Walt Disney Company. The portfolio consists of Disney Research (core research labs in Los Angeles and Zürich), DisneyResearch|Studios (studio-focused ML and visual computing division), and specific products including BDX Droids (bipedal Star Wars entertainment robots) and the Newton Physics Engine (open-source GPU-accelerated physics simulation tool co-developed with NVIDIA and DeepMind). Research spans robotics, machine learning & AI, and immersive/human-computer interaction technologies. Newton and related physics simulation tools are distributed through the Linux Foundation and NVIDIA Isaac Lab for the robotics research community.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BDX Droids: Bipedal walking robots with character personalities designed for entertainment and interaction
• Medusa
• AMOR

Products and services

• Newton Physics Engine Open-source physics simulation engine developed by Disney Research for robotics simulation, gaming, and virtual environments, released to developers and the research community.

Quantifiable outcome

• Newton physics engine contributed to the Linux Foundation and available to over 250,000 robotics developers worldwide
• +2 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability10 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• Linux FoundationcoreTechnology or Integration · 29 September 2025The Linux Foundation announced the contribution of Newton, a GPU-accelerated open-source physics engine co-developed by Disney Research, Google DeepMind, and NVIDIA, to provide neutral governance and foster open, community-driven development. The Newton project has already attracted participation from universities and companies including Technical University of Munich, Peking University, Lightwheel, and Style3D.
• NVIDIAflagshipTechnology or Integration · 18 March 2025Disney Research co-developed the Newton open-source physics engine with NVIDIA and Google DeepMind, announced at NVIDIA GTC 2025. The Newton engine is built on NVIDIA Warp and supports MuJoCo compatibility, enabling GPU-accelerated robotics simulation. Disney also demonstrated an interactive Olaf robot from Frozen at NVIDIA GTC 2026 in San Jose, showcasing robotics advances powered by NVIDIA technology.
• Google DeepMindflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 March 2025Disney Research collaborated with Google DeepMind and NVIDIA to co-develop Newton, an open-source GPU-accelerated physics engine for robotics simulation. Google DeepMind also introduced MuJoCo-Warp alongside this initiative, delivering over 70x acceleration for humanoid simulations and 100x speedup for in-hand manipulation tasks. The collaboration was announced at NVIDIA GTC 2025.
• Walt Disney StudioscoreOthersDisney Research partners with Walt Disney Studios to transfer robotics, AI, visual computing, and immersive technology innovations for application in film production and studio operations.
• Walt Disney Animation StudioscoreOthersDisney Research partners with Walt Disney Animation Studios to apply machine learning, visual computing, and rendering research to animated film production.
• PixarcoreOthersDisney Research partners with Pixar for technology transfer in animation, rendering, and visual computing research.
• LucasfilmcoreOthersDisney Research partners with Lucasfilm, with the BDX droids serving as Star Wars-themed entertainment robots developed through this collaboration.
• MarvelminorOthersDisney Research partners with Marvel for technology transfer related to Marvel content and entertainment properties.
• Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)coreOthersDisney Research partners with ILM for visual effects and visual computing technology transfer.
• Disney StreamingcoreOthersDisney Research partners with Disney Streaming (Disney+) on streaming technology innovations that received Academy Sci-Tech recognition.
• Walt Disney Parks and ResortscoreOthersDisney Research partners with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for deployment of robotics (BDX droids, Olaf robot), immersive technology, and interactive experience innovations in theme parks globally.
• ABCminorOthersDisney Research partners with ABC for technology transfer related to broadcast media and television production.
• ESPNminorOthersDisney Research partners with ESPN for technology transfer related to sports media and broadcasting.
• StudioLABcoreOthersDisney Research partners with StudioLAB, a Disney Studios technology innovation unit, with joint recipients of Academy Sci-Tech Awards including Erika Varis-Dogget.

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Google DeepMind: Google DeepMind conducts frontier AI and robotics research and is a direct co-development partner on the Newton physics engine and MuJoCo-Warp. Both organizations publish at top-tier venues (SIGGRAPH, NeurIPS) and pursue reinforcement learning, generative AI, and embodied agent research with comparable scale and publication cadence.
• NVIDIA Research: NVIDIA Research is a co-developer of Newton (built on NVIDIA Warp) and operates at the intersection of GPU computing, AI simulation, and robotics research. Both labs target GPU-accelerated simulation, robotics foundation models, and embodied AI with shared publication venues and overlapping research agendas.
• Sony Computer Science Laboratories: Sony CSL is Sony's corporate science laboratory conducting fundamental and applied research in AI, robotics, HCI, and entertainment technology. It is the closest industry analog: a major entertainment conglomerate's internal research lab pursuing similar interdisciplinary research-to-product pipelines.
• Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) R&D / Lucasfilm Advanced Development: ILM is a Disney-owned VFX studio that internally develops cutting-edge performance capture, rendering, and visual-effects technology. It is a direct partner of Disney Research and represents a peer in entertainment-focused internal R&D with overlapping technical domains (Medusa performance capture, VFX, real-time rendering).

Broad incumbents

• Microsoft Research: Microsoft Research is one of the largest corporate research labs globally, publishing across robotics, computer vision, HCI, and ML with a similar internal-to-product technology-transfer model. It is comparable in academic output breadth and corporate-deployment scale, though diversified beyond entertainment.
• Meta AI (FAIR): Meta Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) pursues open-publication frontier research in computer vision, generative AI, and embodied agents. Like Disney Research, it emphasizes open-source releases and top-tier conference presence, though at much larger scale and broader scope.
• IBM Research: IBM Research is a long-established corporate R&D division with multi-decade publication records across AI, HCI, and visual computing. Comparable in the corporate-research-org structure and academic-publication model, though diversified across enterprise software and consulting markets.
• Apple Machine Learning Research: Apple's ML research division publishes at top ML/AI/CV venues and pursues on-device AI, computer vision, and human-centered computing research. Comparable as a large consumer-tech internal research org, though research output is selectively disclosed versus Disney Research's open-publication approach.
• Amazon Science: Amazon Science is Amazon's central research organization covering robotics (Amazon Robotics/Agility), computer vision, NLP, and HCI. It shares the corporate-research-org structure with internal technology-transfer pathways to product, though applied to logistics and e-commerce rather than entertainment.
• Tencent AI Lab: Tencent AI Lab conducts fundamental and applied research in computer vision, NLP, multimodal AI, and game/reinforcement learning. It is comparable as an Asian-headquartered conglomerate-affiliated research org pursuing AI research with both open publication and integration into entertainment/gaming products.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/DisneyResearchHub
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/disney-research
• Xx.com/disneyresearch

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Disney Research