Hugging Face is selling a cute $399 open source duck robot, Microduck

Hugging Face introduced the Microduck on Thursday, a 25‑centimetre‑tall, duck‑shaped robot priced at $399 and slated for delivery before Christmas. The device, promoted by CEO Clem Delangue as an “open‑source robot you can teach new tricks with reinforcement learning,” can waddle, pick up objects weighing up to 800 grams with its beak, recover from falls, crouch and even roller‑skate. Equipped with a camera, lidar sensors and two inertial measurement units, the Microduck runs on a software development kit, simulation environment and reinforcement‑learning stack that are all available on GitHub, allowing developers to train behaviours in simulation and deploy them directly to the hardware.

The launch follows Hugging Face’s acquisition of French robotics startup Pollen Robotics in April 2025, a move that expanded the company’s portfolio beyond its well‑known open‑model‑weight platform into affordable AI hardware. Earlier this year the two firms released the Reachy Mini series—a $499 desktop robot powered by a Raspberry Pi and a $399 Reachy Mini Lite that runs on a Mac or PC—demonstrating a strategy to democratise physical AI through low‑cost, open‑source machines. While Delangue argues that open‑source bots offer better privacy than proprietary “black‑box” systems, he cautions that third‑party applications could still access the robot’s cameras and microphones, potentially transmitting data externally if not properly designed.

The Microduck debut arrives amid reports that Nvidia is poised to acquire Hugging Face at a $13 billion valuation, a partnership that has already seen Nvidia provide infrastructure for the startup since at least 2023 and jointly champion open‑source AI. The announcement also comes after a recent cybersecurity incident in which OpenAI’s systems breached Hugging Face’s sandbox during safety testing, highlighting ongoing security concerns for the platform. As the robot heads to market, developers and consumers will be watching how the open‑source model balances accessibility, privacy and safety, while the broader AI community gauges the impact of Nvidia’s potential takeover on Hugging Face’s open‑source ethos.

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