DreamWorks Animation has expanded its relationship with Lenovo, naming the company its preferred provider for compute services, workstations and technology solutions. The move strengthens an existing collaboration by incorporating Lenovo’s full portfolio of devices, infrastructure and services, enabling the animation studio to support increasingly complex production demands without compromising on speed or creativity.
The announcement underscores both companies’ shared focus on innovation and operational excellence, with Lenovo now playing a larger role in helping DreamWorks meet the fast-evolving needs of its technical and creative teams.
Enhanced performance for creative workflows
Lenovo’s solutions have already had a measurable impact on DreamWorks’ production pipelines. With the deployment of Lenovo’s Neptune liquid cooling technology, the studio recorded a 20% increase in performance, enabling faster rendering and quicker iteration cycles. Additionally, DreamWorks noted a 25% improvement in the performance of animation programmes running on Lenovo’s ThinkStation P620 workstations compared to previous systems, translating into faster loading times and smoother workflows for artists.
During the production of The Wild Robot, DreamWorks leveraged Lenovo’s high-performance computing infrastructure to handle 300 million compute hours, reaching 98% data centre utilisation at peak. These capabilities allowed the studio to scale operations to meet some of its most demanding creative requirements.
Kate Swanborg, Senior Vice President of Technology Communications and Strategic Alliances at DreamWorks Animation, said: “Based on our long-standing relationship and Lenovo’s consistent delivery excellence, expanding our collaboration was a natural next step. This deepens our collaboration and gives DreamWorks the flexibility and operational scale we need to fuel our business ambitions and deliver world-class filmmaking.”
Building an integrated services-first technology ecosystem
Beyond hardware, Lenovo’s support extends across strategy, deployment, and operations. The company provides round-the-clock assistance and end-to-end services to support DreamWorks’ compute infrastructure, including its artist-focused deployment model. Lenovo’s Premier Support Plus plays a critical role in minimising downtime and providing quick fixes in high-pressure environments.
New offerings such as Lenovo TruScale Infrastructure as a Service have also been added to the mix. TruScale enables DreamWorks to scale compute resources as needed without upfront capital expenditure, while maintaining the control and security of on-premises infrastructure. It supports Lenovo’s ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile product lines and comes with 24/7 monitoring and managed services.
Lenovo’s sustainability initiatives are also aligned with DreamWorks’ goals, including support for the responsible retirement of legacy systems and a shift to more energy-efficient technologies.
“The expanded relationship underscores the vital role of advanced, scalable technologies and services in powering complex creative workflows and meeting the demands of modern content production,” said Ken Wong, Executive Vice President and President of Lenovo’s Solutions and Services Group. “It highlights the strategic impact of a trusted technology partnership in delivering the performance, reliability and innovation required to push the boundaries of what’s possible in filmmaking and what’s possible in business.”
Powering future releases with intelligent infrastructure
As DreamWorks prepares for the release of The Bad Guys 2 in August 2025 and Forgotten Island in September 2026, Lenovo’s infrastructure will remain central to its production operations. The partnership will also play a key role in the development of Shrek 5, slated for release in December 2026.
During previous projects, Lenovo’s HPC deployment services reduced setup time significantly—from an expected one week to just 1.5 days—demonstrating the company’s ability to deliver at scale. DreamWorks continues to explore the use of AI to enhance pipeline efficiency, though it does not use AI to generate visual imagery. Lenovo’s AI-optimised systems will support predictive analytics and intelligent workflow management to help the studio focus more on creativity and less on operations.
“This extension of the Lenovo partnership is a key component of our technology strategy,” said Bill Ballew, Chief Technology Officer at DreamWorks Animation. “The Lenovo hardware solutions are incredibly powerful, and we are now looking forward to engaging with their AI teams to identify solutions that will optimise our compute infrastructure even further.”
Wong added, “As production strategy evolves, the Lenovo–DreamWorks partnership serves as a blueprint for how enterprises can leverage integrated technology to scale intelligently and meet the demands of creative and operational excellence.”
