Hugging Face, the prominent AI development platform, is making deeper inroads into the robotics space with the introduction of two new open-source humanoid robots: HopeJR and Reachy Mini.
Announced Thursday, these robots mark a significant step forward in the company’s strategy to democratize robotics. HopeJR is a full-scale humanoid capable of walking and arm movement, boasting 66 degrees of freedom — meaning it can perform 66 independent motions. Reachy Mini, designed for desktops, features head mobility, speech recognition and generation capabilities, and serves as a testing unit for AI applications.
While an exact shipping date hasn’t been confirmed, Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clem Delangue said via email to TechCrunch that the company expects to begin delivering the first batch of units by the end of 2025. A waitlist is already open.
Pricing for the robots aims to remain accessible. HopeJR is estimated to retail for around $3,000 per unit, while the smaller Reachy Mini is expected to cost between $250 and $300, depending on tariff variations.
“The important aspect is that these robots are open source,” said Delangue. “So anyone can assemble, rebuild, and understand how they work. And they’re affordable, so that robotics doesn’t get dominated by just a few big players with dangerous black-box systems.”
The development of these machines was made possible through Hugging Face’s acquisition of humanoid robotics firm Pollen Robotics in April 2025. According to Delangue, the acquired team contributed crucial expertise that enabled Hugging Face to advance its hardware capabilities.
This latest hardware release follows a series of strategic moves in the robotics field. In 2024, Hugging Face launched LeRobot, an open platform featuring AI models, datasets, and tools designed for robotics development. In early 2025, it rolled out an enhanced version of the SO-101, a 3D-printed, programmable robotic arm built in partnership with French firm The Robot Studio. More recently, Hugging Face expanded the LeRobot dataset through a collaboration with AI startup Yaak to include training data for autonomous machines.
With HopeJR and Reachy Mini, Hugging Face underscores its commitment to open, affordable robotics — a stance aimed at challenging the dominance of proprietary systems in the AI hardware space.
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