Hottest toy for Christmas? Nvidia CEO plays with adorable Microduck robots, 20,000 sell

Why it matters

A viral video of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang playing with Microducks during his GTC Berlin keynote triggered a surge in preorders, with Hugging Face's Clem Delangue reporting more than twenty thousand units ordered the following day. The small open source robots, made by Pollen Robotics, performed tricks on voice command during the demonstration, including sitting, napping, and somersaulting. Pollen Robotics was acquired by Hugging Face in 2025, and Nvidia's September purchase of Hugging Face places the robots within the Nvidia corporate family. The Microducks are Hugging Face's second robot offering, following the Reachy Mini. They were trained using Nvidia's simulation technology, which taught them basic behaviors like walking and sitting before shipping, and owners can add new tricks and share them with the community. Deliveries are expected before Christmas, positioning the robots as a potential holiday hit. Delangue suggested they could become the year's best-selling robot, appealing to adults as well as children, since promotional videos show grown-ups playing with them too.