It may look like a cute toy duck, but Hugging Face’s new Microduck is a fascinating example of how interconnected the modern technology industry has become.
The 25cm-tall robot has been developed by Pollen Robotics, the French robotics company acquired by Hugging Face in 2025.
Beneath its quirky exterior is a Chinese-made Rockchip RK3566 processor based on ARM architecture, alongside cameras, LiDAR, motion sensors, microphones and wireless connectivity.
The software story is equally international. Microduck is designed around open-source technology, allowing developers to programme, train and teach it new behaviours using Hugging Face’s robotics ecosystem and reinforcement learning tools.
Global design
That makes Microduck more than an amusing little robot. It is a miniature demonstration of the global supply chain behind modern AI: French engineering, Chinese semiconductor manufacturing, British-designed ARM technology and internationally developed open-source software coming together in one product.
Priced at $399, Microduck is intended to make physical AI more accessible to developers, researchers and enthusiasts. Hugging Face says it received more than $2.6 million in orders during the first 24 hours.
The duck may be French-designed, Chinese-powered and ARM-based — but its ambition is truly global.
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