Nvidia CEO’s Microduck Stunt Ignites 20,000 Pre‑Orders and Christmas Hype

From GTC Berlin to Holiday Shelves: The Rise of Hugging Face’s Microducks

During Jensen Huang’s keynote at Nvidia’s GTC Berlin conference, a clip of the CEO playing with a flock of waddling Microducks went viral. The tiny robots shuffled, emitted R2‑D2‑style beeps, obeyed commands to sit, pretended to die for a “nap,” and performed somersaults on voice cue. The charm was immediate: within a day, pre‑orders topped 20,000 units, according to Hugging Face’s Clem Delangue, who shared the milestone on Twitter.

If the devices arrive before Christmas, the Microducks could become the season’s most coveted toy. Delangue suggested they might outpace other robots this year and appeal to adults as much as children. Promotional footage shows grown‑ups interacting with the bots, hinting at a market that extends beyond kids’ playthings.

Microducks are open‑source robots built by Pollen Robotics, a company that Hugging Face purchased in 2025. With Nvidia’s September acquisition of Hugging Face, the robots now belong to Nvidia’s portfolio. They were trained using Nvidia’s simulation stack, learning basic movements such as walking, sitting, and standing before shipping. Owners can teach new tricks and share them with the community, expanding the robots’ capabilities over time. The line follows Hugging Face’s earlier robot, the Reachy Mini, which also drew attention for its cuteness.

The viral moment was captured in a tweet from NVIDIA RTX Spark, highlighting the link between AI agents on RTX hardware and the physical Microduck.

When @jensenhuang asks for a somersault, you deliver. 🦆See how AI agents on NVIDIA RTX Spark help bring @huggingface’s Microduck from simulation to the real world. pic.twitter.com/W6qidApR2O

— NVIDIA RTX Spark (@NVIDIARTXSpark) October 21, 2026