Microduck robot preorders pass 20,000 after Nvidia CEO demo

In short: A viral video of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang playing with Microduck robots helped push preorders past 20,000 units.

What's going on

A video from Nvidia’s GTC Berlin conference spread quickly online this week. In it, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang interacts with a group of small duck-like robots called Microducks.

The robots respond to voice commands. In the demo, they walked, sat, and did a somersault. They also played a “nap” trick where they fall over, like toy figures that flop when you let go.

Clem Delangue, the CEO of Hugging Face, said on X that Microduck preorders passed 20,000 by the next day. The company expects to deliver the robots in time for Christmas.

Microduck is made by Pollen Robotics, a company Hugging Face acquired in 2025. Nvidia bought Hugging Face in September, which puts Microduck under Nvidia’s ownership. Pollen and Hugging Face describe Microduck as “open source,” which means the design and code are shared publicly so owners can modify it, a bit like sharing a recipe that others can tweak.

Pollen also says Microducks were taught basic moves in simulation, which is like training in a flight simulator before doing it in the real world. Owners can reportedly teach new tricks and share them with other users.

What to watch

If deliveries arrive before the holidays, Microduck could become a popular gift, including for adults. It is also a sign that small, programmable robots are moving from tech demos into everyday consumer products.

Source: TechCrunch AI