A short clip of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang handling a group of waddling Microducks during his GTC Berlin keynote circulated widely after the event. The robots — which sit, fall over for a “nap,” make R2‑D2–style noises and perform somersaults on voice command — drew strong attention and prompted a surge in preorders.
Sales and timing
Hugging Face’s Clem Delangue reported via tweet that preorders for the Microducks topped 20,000 units within a day of the video. The company says the devices are expected to be delivered in time for Christmas.
Product background and ownership
Microducks are produced by Pollen Robotics, a company acquired by Hugging Face in 2025. The report notes that Hugging Face itself was bought by the GPU maker Nvidia in September. Microducks are described as open-source devices; Pollen Robotics previously shipped another robot called Reachy Mini.
Training and community features
The Microducks were reportedly trained using Nvidia’s technology stack. Simulations were used to teach the robots basic tricks such as walking, sitting and standing, and those routines are included with the units at shipping. Pollen Robotics says owners will be able to train their Microducks with additional behaviors and share those community-created tricks.
Clem Delangue suggested in his tweet that the Microducks could become the best-selling robot of the year and noted they might appeal to adults as well as children. A separate post from NVIDIA RTX Spark highlighted the role of simulation-to-reality workflows in the robots’ development and quoted the event moment: “When @jensenhuang asks for a somersault, you deliver.”
Preorders exceeding 20,000 and the stated delivery window ahead of Christmas are the concrete metrics reported so far.
Original source: TechCrunch AI