The most talked-about robot of the week can’t open a door, carry your groceries or answer email. It is a 25 cm duck that waddles, beeps like R2-D2 and falls over when you tell it to take a nap. And people are lining up to buy it.
The Microduck robot, made by Hugging Face’s Pollen Robotics unit, became an internet hit after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang played with four of them on stage during his GTC Berlin keynote this week. A day after the clip spread, Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue posted on X that preorders had crossed 20,000 units. The $399 robot is expected to reach its first buyers in North America and Europe before Christmas.
Quick Facts
- Who: Pollen Robotics (owned by Hugging Face), with a stage demo by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
- What: Microduck, a small two-legged, open-source robot duck you can train yourself
- When: Demo at GTC Berlin this week; clip shared by Nvidia on October 21, 2026
- Where: Preorders open for North America and Europe; first deliveries targeted before Christmas 2026
- Key number: 20,000+ preorders, according to Hugging Face’s CEO, at $399 each before taxes and shipping
What Happened at the Jensen Huang Microduck Demo
Tech keynotes are usually slick. This one was charmingly messy. Huang asked a little flock of Microducks to sit, stand, nap and do somersaults. When told to nap, three of them simply toppled over. Another wandered off, tripped, picked itself up and eventually found its way back to him. A couple did pull off the somersault.
That imperfection is probably why the video worked. It looked less like a product launch and more like someone trying to get a puppy to behave in front of guests. Nvidia’s RTX Spark account posted the clip with a caption about delivering a somersault when Jensen asks for one, and it took off from there.
Microduck Price and Specs: What $399 Gets You
Preorders first opened in late August. Here is what buyers get, based on details shared by Hugging Face and reported by Engadget and others:
- About 25 cm tall and under 800 grams, walking on two legs
- 15 motors, a camera, a small LiDAR sensor and two motion sensors (IMUs)
- An articulated beak that can pick up small objects
- A microphone and speaker, but it talks in beeps and chirps, not words
- 32 GB storage, 1 GB RAM, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
- A 2,600 mAh battery good for roughly an hour of continuous use
- Four colours: Cream, Graphite, Lavender and Sky
The box includes the robot, battery, a USB-C cable and a game controller. Accessories cost extra. Out of the box it knows a handful of basic moves like walking, sitting and standing up. It can even roller-skate.
Why a Toy Duck Matters for Nvidia and Hugging Face
The duck is cute, but the real pitch is about how robots learn. Huang said the Microducks were trained in the cloud on Nvidia systems and then refined inside a digital twin, a virtual copy of the real world, running on an RTX Spark machine. Nvidia also said AI agents helped move the duck’s skills from simulation to the physical robot.
That is the whole “physical AI” bet in miniature. If you can teach a robot to walk in a simulator and have it work in a real living room, you can scale the same idea to warehouse robots, delivery bots and humanoids. A $399 duck lets thousands of hobbyists and students test that pipeline at home.
There is a business angle too. TechCrunch reports that Nvidia bought Hugging Face in September, which would make Pollen Robotics part of Nvidia’s family. A hit consumer gadget built on Nvidia’s training tools is good advertising for the chips and software behind it.
Open-Source Robot You Can Teach New Tricks
Microduck is Hugging Face’s second robot after the Reachy Mini, a desk robot built around talking with humans. This time the focus is movement. The software kit, the MuJoCo simulation setup and the full reinforcement learning training code are published under the Apache 2.0 licence, so anyone can download them. Owners can train new tricks and share them with other users.
Think of it like a mobile phone app store, but for robot moves. One person teaches the duck to dance, uploads it, and someone in another country runs the same routine on their duck that evening.
Can You Buy the Microduck Robot in India?
Not officially, for now. The first batch is aimed at North America and Europe, and there has been no announcement about Indian sales. At $399, the converted price alone runs well past ₹30,000, and anyone importing one would also pay shipping and customs duty on top.
Indian engineering students and robotics clubs don’t need to wait for the hardware, though. Because the software is open source, they can already explore the simulation and training code on a laptop and learn the same skills the duck uses.
What We Don’t Know Yet
- The 20,000 figure comes from a single post by Hugging Face’s CEO. Some outlets read his wording as a forecast rather than a confirmed count, and no official sales data has been released.
- Preorders are not deliveries. Shipments have not started, and the Christmas target is a goal, not a guarantee.
- There is no word on India, Asia or Middle East availability.
What This Means for You
- If you’re a parent shopping for a gift: this is a developer kit with a one-hour battery, not a plug-and-play toy. Kids who enjoy coding will get more from it.
- If you’re a student: grab the free software first. It is a cheap way to learn simulation and reinforcement learning, skills robotics firms hire for.
- If you see “Microduck” listings on random sites: be careful. Viral gadgets attract fake shops. Order only through official Hugging Face or Pollen Robotics channels.
Our Take
The best marketing for a robot turned out to be a robot falling over. Microduck won’t change your life, but it makes cutting-edge robot training feel touchable and a bit silly, which is exactly how many of today’s engineers first got hooked. If the ducks actually ship on time, this could be the gadget that turns “physical AI” from a keynote buzzword into something sitting on a student’s desk.
FAQs
What is the Microduck robot?
It is a small, two-legged, open-source robot duck from Hugging Face’s Pollen Robotics that can walk, sit, stand up and learn new tricks you train for it.
How much does the Microduck cost?
The preorder price is $399, before taxes and shipping. Extra accessories are sold separately.
When will the Microduck ship?
The first deliveries are targeted before Christmas 2026 for buyers in North America and Europe. Shipping has not yet begun.
Is the Microduck available in India?
There is no official India launch yet. Indian users can still download and use the open-source software and simulator for free.
Why did Jensen Huang’s Microduck video go viral?
The Nvidia CEO’s live demo at GTC Berlin was endearingly clumsy, with ducks tumbling and wandering off, and the clip spread fast on social media.
For official details, see Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Engadget and Superpower Daily.
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