Pollen Robotics

Robotics · AI Hardware · Consumer Tech

Launch

Pollen Robotics' $399 Microduck robot tops 10,000 units sold in days

Its onboard intelligence runs on a Chinese Rockchip chip built on licensed British ARM technology, revealing how tangled AI hardware supply chains remain.

• Pollen Robotics, Hugging Face's French robotics subsidiary, launched the $399 Microduck robot on Aug. 27, 2026, and sold more than 10,000 units within days, generating over $4 million in orders.
• Hugging Face acquired Pollen Robotics in April 2025 to build affordable, open-source AI hardware; Microduck is its second product after the Reachy Mini desktop robot, which has also shipped over 10,000 units.
• The 25cm, 800g biped packs 15 motors, a camera, LiDAR, and two IMUs, running on a Rockchip RK3566 chip with an open-source SDK and reinforcement-learning stack on GitHub for training new skills in simulation.
• Preorders topped $1 million within six hours of launch and reached $2.6 million in the first 24 hours, before climbing past $4 million on more than 10,000 units sold.
• The pace of orders, roughly one unit every four seconds, has already pushed new preorders past the original 'before Christmas 2026' delivery promise.
• Pollen Robotics open-sourced only Microduck's software; its mechanical and electronic hardware designs remain closed, and the company has asked press not to call it 'open-source hardware.'
• Microduck's onboard compute comes from Chinese chipmaker Rockchip, which licenses core technology from Britain's ARM, a reminder that even niche AI hardware startups depend on global, cross-border chip supply chains.
• Microduck's runaway demand shows a $399 open-source robot with real reinforcement-learning tools can turn robotics from a lab-bound research niche into a mass-market consumer and developer product.