Nvidia’s $399 Microduck draws 20,000 preorders before launch

A group of waddling Microduck robots stole the spotlight during Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC Berlin keynote. It reportedly bagged more than 20,000 preorders. However, Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue was less definite in his original post:

“Going to cross 20,000+ total pre-orders probably tomorrow making Microduck probably the most sold robot of 2026?”

Delangue was predicting that preorders would reach 20,000, not confirming they had already crossed that mark. The figures also represent advance orders, not robots delivered to customers.

A viral keynote, then a surge of preorders

In an October 21 clip, Huang asks for a somersault. The ducks walk, sit and play dead. Pollen Robotics made Microduck and became part of Hugging Face in 2025. Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face in September, though the deal isn’t expected to close until 2027. Microduck deliveries are expected before Christmas.

What the Microduck actually is

The Microduck is more of a programmable desk robot than a household assistant. It is 25 cm tall and weighs 800 grams, and is equipped with 15 motors, a camera, LIDAR, and two inertial sensors. It comes with seven trained moves. But owners can teach it new tricks and share those movements with other Microduck users. Its software is open source under Apache 2.0. The robot costs $399 before taxes and shipping.

In an October 23 technical post, Nvidia showed how robots like Microduck can learn to move through simulation. AI agents first created a virtual obstacle course. Isaac Lab then trained the robot’s movements across 4,096 simulated environments using a Blackwell GPU. Finally, Isaac Sim checked its performance before testing on a physical robot.

Robots can already navigate warehouses and make deliveries, according to Epoch AI. But handling everyday objects at home is another matter. Robots typically work three to ten times slower than humans and often need retraining when faced with unfamiliar tasks. Microduck’s seven trained moves may be entertaining, but they don’t solve these problems.

Who is actually buying robots right now?

Nearly 25,000 humanoid robots were shipped worldwide in the first half of 2026, according to IDC figures reported by Forbes. That’s a 432.1% increase from a year earlier, with revenue topping $740 million. Chinese manufacturers produced more than 95% of them. However, 69% of shipments went to research, exhibitions and data collection rather than everyday commercial work.

Consumer robots tell a different story. The IFR reported that sales reached 34.2 million units in 2025, up 37%. Most were household robots, such as automated vacuum cleaners, rather than humanoids.

In a survey, 65% of U.S. respondents wanted an advanced home robot. Yet 69% would not pay over $5,000, and about half worried about safety.

Former Nvidia robotics executive Amulya Vishwanath called the industry a “Lego era” in Cryptopolitan, pointing to unfinished components and safety systems. McKinsey sees supply-chain limits, too.

The real win for Nvidia may be infrastructure

While selling robots might not be considered to be Nvidia’s greatest opportunity, BCG reports that software training and deployment could lead to growth in the robotics sector. On its part, Nvidia intends to become the supplier of chips and simulation technologies employed by those robots, regardless of whether they are from China or elsewhere. The case of Microduck provides insight into this broader approach.