Hottest toy for Christmas? Nvidia CEO plays with adorable Microduck robots, 20,000 sell
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's viral video with Microduck robots led to over 20,000 preorders, possibly making them the hottest Christmas toy.Summary
A video of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang playing with a flock of waddling Microduck robots at the GTC Berlin conference went viral this week. The robots, which respond to voice commands by sitting, napping, and somersaulting, charmed audiences and drove preorders past 20,000 units by the next day, according to Hugging Face's Clem Delangue. The Microducks are produced by Pollen Robotics, a company acquired by Hugging Face in 2025, which was itself acquired by Nvidia in September. They are open-source devices trained using Nvidia's technology stack to perform basic tricks like walking, sitting, and standing, and owners can train and share new tricks with the community. Expected to ship in time for Christmas, the Microducks are poised to become the holiday season's hottest toy, appealing to both kids and adults. Delangue suggests they could be the best-selling robot of the year. The article also notes the contrast between this lighthearted AI application and the negative AI-related cyberattacks that occurred the same week.
(Source：TechCrunch)