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Microducks Discover the Consumer Power of Falling Over

October 23, 2026 at 6:01 PM EDT · New York time

A video of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang playing with Microduck robots at GTC Berlin went viral, followed by more than 20,000 preorders by the next day, according to Hugging Face's Clem Delangue. The little machines waddled, made tiny R2-D2-like noises and obeyed voice commands to sit, take a theatrical nap and somersault. Apparently the consumer robotics breakthrough was not folding laundry. It was developing a convincing excuse to lie down. The robots are expected to arrive in time for Christmas. That timing makes the demonstration relevant far beyond the conference stage: holiday shoppers now have another device whose principal household contribution may be attracting everyone away from the dishes. Expected delivery, of course, is a schedule rather than a stack of completed deliveries beneath the tree. Delangue thinks Microducks could become the year's best-selling robot. That remains a prediction, but the reported preorder response gives it something sturdier than conference applause. For an industry accustomed to explaining enormous computing requirements, the sales pitch was refreshingly legible: small feet, funny noises, immediate affection. The robot can perform a nap on command, a capability many holiday hosts would prefer to install in their visiting relatives.

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