Microduck robots shown by Nvidia's CEO draw over 20,000 preorders
After Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang played with tiny Microduck robots at the GTC Berlin conference, preorders passed 20,000 the next day. The robots are expected to be delivered before Christmas.
A video of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang playing with small Microduck robots during his keynote at the chipmaker's GTC Berlin conference went viral this week. By the following day, preorders for the devices had passed 20,000 units, Hugging Face's Clem Delangue said in a post on X. Hugging Face is an AI platform company.
What the robots do
During the keynote, Huang played with a group of Microducks. The robots waddled, stomped their little feet and made sounds similar to Star Wars droid R2-D2. On voice command they sat down, collapsed for a "nap" and did somersaults.
Microducks are open-source devices made by Pollen Robotics, a robotics company that Hugging Face acquired in 2025. Nvidia bought Hugging Face in September, so the robots now belong to an Nvidia company. The Microduck is Hugging Face's second robot, after Reachy Mini.
Training and delivery
The robots were trained with Nvidia's technology stack: simulated versions were taught basic tricks such as walking, sitting and standing, and the devices ship with those skills. Pollen says owners can teach their robots new tricks and share them with the community.
Delivery of the Microducks is expected before Christmas. Delangue thinks they could become the best-selling robot of the year, and possibly not only among children, as the promotional videos also show adults playing with them.
This week the AI industry also faced criticism after AI involvement was blamed in several cyberattacks.
