French robotics expert praises Shenzhen as 'AI agent' for hardware makers

French robotics expert Matthieu Lapeyre, co-founder and CEO of Pollen Robotics, took to X on September 17 to praise Shenzhen's industrial ecosystem, likening the city to an "AI agent" for hardware professionals. He said that one day in Shenzhen can accomplish what would take three weeks elsewhere, thanks to the proximity of suppliers, factories, components, tooling, engineers and fast-moving people.

His post drew comments. One AI industry practitioner said he always advises hardware founders to visit Shenzhen, where a supplier can be found to make things you thought impossible. Lapeyre replied that Shenzhen is a must-visit for hardware makers and that he regretted not coming earlier. Another user compared Shenzhen to an AI agent client on a PC, with the actual work done on "servers" in Dongguan. Lapeyre responded that the distance is short and China's delivery speed is excellent, with samples arriving within hours without leaving the desk.

Lapeyre earned a PhD in robotics and AI from the University of Bordeaux in 2014 and co-founded Pollen Robotics in 2016. The company develops open-source interactive humanoid robots and was acquired by Hugging Face in 2025. In August 2026, his team launched Microduck, an open-source bipedal duck-shaped robot, which sold over $2.6 million within 24 hours. The robot is manufactured by Shenzhen's Seeed Studio and uses a Rockchip RK3566 processor as its main chip.

Lapeyre has actively leveraged China's hardware manufacturing capabilities. Seeed Studio was also involved in producing his earlier desktop robot Reachy Mini. In July 2026, People's Daily reported on Shenzhen's industrial ecosystem, saying a robotics startup with blueprints could find a complete supply chain within one hour and see samples in three days.