Nvidia's viral Microduck robots top 20,000 preorders

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang caused a stir this week when a clip of him playing with waddling Microduck robots at the company’s Berlin-based GTC conference keynote spread widely online. Hugging Face co-founder Clem Delangue said preorders for the ducks had already topped 20,000 units by the next day. The small robots walk, sit, flop over for a “nap,” and tumble into somersaults on voice command, with movements and sounds reminiscent of R2-D2.

Delangue said the Microducks could become the year’s best-selling robot — and not just with kids; the brand’s own promo clips feature grown-ups playing with the ducks as well. The units are expected to ship in time for Christmas, putting them in contention for the season’s hottest holiday toy. Microducks are open-source devices made by Pollen Robotics, which Hugging Face acquired in 2025; Nvidia bought Hugging Face itself in September, making the duck-shaped robot an Nvidia product by extension. It’s Pollen’s second robot since joining Hugging Face, after the Reachy Mini.

Pollen built the ducks’ repertoire — walking, sitting, standing — by training simulations on Nvidia’s technology stack, and the robots ship with those tricks already loaded. Owners can also teach their own Microducks new moves and share them with the wider community, Pollen says.

Why it matters

The jump from a viral keynote clip to 20,000 preorders in a day shows how fast a well-timed demo can convert into sales for consumer robotics — a category Nvidia is now tied to through its Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics acquisitions. It also lands as a rare lighthearted story for an AI industry that spent the same week fielding blame for a string of cyberattacks.