A duck-shaped open-source robot priced at $399 has sold over 10,000 units within days of its launch, propelling the shares of its Chinese chip supplier, Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd. (603893), to consecutive gains on the A-share market.

According to a recent CNBC report, the Microduck robot, developed by Pollen Robotics, a French subsidiary of Hugging Face, has surpassed 10,000 units sold since its release last Thursday, with sales exceeding $5 million by Tuesday evening. The overwhelming demand has pushed delivery times for new orders beyond Christmas 2026.

News of the Microduck's popularity has drawn significant market attention to Shanghai-listed Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd., which supplies the robot's core computing chip. The company's stock rose for two consecutive sessions on Monday and Tuesday, accumulating a gain of approximately 15% over the past five trading days, though it saw a slight pullback in Wednesday's session.

A Single Duck Ignites Interest in a Chinese Chip

The Microduck retails for $399, weighs approximately 800 grams, and stands about 25 centimeters tall. It is equipped with an array of sensors, including a camera, microphone, speaker, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LiDAR.

Its core computing unit is powered by Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd.'s RK3566 chip. Pollen Robotics cited the chip's "onboard 1 TOPS NPU"—a neural processing unit capable of one trillion operations per second—as the reason for selecting the supplier.

Lian Jye Su, principal analyst at market research firm Omdia, has positioned Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd. as a "key supplier" for on-device AI, noting that its chips are widely deployed in machine vision applications involving object detection and image recognition.

However, Su also highlighted limitations: "Although Rockchip's chips have extremely broad coverage, they are not designed for complex edge AI devices due to a lack of sufficient computing resources."

The RK3566 chip also incorporates licensed technology from UK-based semiconductor firm ARM.

Microduck: Open-Source and Trainable, More Than Just a Toy

The Microduck's biggest selling point is not its ability to skate or grab socks, but that users can "teach" it themselves.

As previously reported, the Microduck supports reinforcement learning—a process where the robot gradually learns new physical skills through trial and error, rather than relying on pre-programmed instructions from engineers. Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue has called it "the first affordable AI robot that can be taught new skills through reinforcement learning."

He also stated that the team deliberately designed the Microduck to be "built for movement and ready to fall," emphasizing: "We also want these robots to teach people that robots can fail, can make mistakes, and you need to account for that in your design."

The Microduck does not have traditional arms; instead, it uses a movable "duck bill" for grasping, capable of lifting objects weighing up to 800 grams, and can stand up again after being pushed over.

Explosive Orders Create Delivery Backlog

Thomas Wolf, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Hugging Face, noted in a social media post that users have already begun monitoring the Microduck's supply chain, and the company is facing a surge of incoming orders.

Following the opening of reservations, the Microduck was selling at a rate of one unit every four seconds. Hugging Face aims to sell more than 20,000 units, with the first batch initially scheduled for delivery before Christmas. However, delivery times for new orders have now been pushed back.

The Microduck is manufactured in China, with Shenzhen-based open-source hardware manufacturer Seeed Studio involved in production.

Hugging Face Doubles Down on Physical AI Amid Nvidia Acquisition Speculation

The Microduck is the second robot launched by Hugging Face. Previously, the company partnered with Pollen Robotics to release the Reachy Mini, which also sold over 10,000 units in its initial batch; Hugging Face subsequently acquired Pollen Robotics.

Just ahead of the Microduck's launch, The Information reported that Nvidia had agreed to acquire Hugging Face for approximately $12.9 billion. Neither company has commented on the matter.

Meanwhile, similar products are emerging in the market: startup Zeroth has introduced a child-sized humanoid robot priced at 8,888 yuan, while Mondo Robotics' Wall-E-style camera robot has exceeded its Kickstarter fundraising goal by 80 times, with early-bird prices starting at $549.