Nvidia CEO's Demo of Microduck Robots Draws More Than 20,000 Preorders
After Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang showed off small Microduck robots at the GTC Berlin conference, preorders passed 20,000 units. The robots are made by Pollen Robotics, owned by Hugging Face, and are due for delivery before Christmas.
A video of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang playing with small, waddling Microduck robots during his keynote at the company's GTC Berlin conference went viral earlier this week. By the following day, preorders for the Microducks had passed 20,000 units, according to a tweet from Clem Delangue of Hugging Face, an AI platform company. The robots are expected to arrive in time for Christmas, which could make them one of the season's most sought-after toys.
What the robots do
In the video, the Microducks stomp their tiny feet and make small sounds reminiscent of Star Wars droid R2-D2. On voice command they sit, drop down for a "nap" and do somersaults. Delangue thinks they could become the best-selling robot of the year, and not necessarily only among children: the promotional videos also show adults playing with them.
Who is behind them
Microducks are open-source devices produced by Pollen Robotics. Hugging Face acquired that company in 2025, and Nvidia bought Hugging Face in September, so the Microducks are now an Nvidia product. They are Hugging Face's second robot, following the similarly cute Reachy Mini.
The robots were trained with Nvidia's technology stack: simulated versions learned basic skills such as walking, sitting and standing, and the physical devices ship with those abilities. Pollen says owners can teach their robots new tricks and share them with the community.
The source outlet, TechCrunch, notes that the news arrives after a week in which the AI industry faced criticism, as AI involvement was blamed for a series of cyberattacks.
