Pittsburgh Tech Beat

Austin Orth
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News and analysis of the Pittsburgh tech scene. https://www.pghtechbeat.com/ www.pghtechbeat.com

  1. Sep 4

    The Monthly Beat - August/Sept. '26 Combo Edition

    Hello and welcome back to the Monthly Beat! Sorry for the delay on this one. My end of summer has been absolutely packed. So much has happened since last post, and even just in this first week of September! But I’m going to resist the urge to talk about those September things and instead just focus on … Pittsburgh Tech Beat is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, subscribe today for free! What Happened the Past Two Months * Astrobotic was officially acquired by Voyager Technologies, which is rebranding it Voyager Lunar Systems. “We’re going to be investing into the state of Pennsylvania, into Pittsburgh, to really help scale them up,” said Matthew Kuta, President of Voyager Technologies. The newly rebranded company is now also targeting up to 30 robotic lunar landings as part of a roughly $298M task order from NASA. This is honestly such a huge win for the local tech scene, and I’m excited to see the addition of jobs and expansion of their facilities in Pittsburgh! * Speaking of acquisitions, healthcare-focused AI transcription company Abridge absorbed an agentic AI startup called Altrina. Altrina specializes in browser-based and computer-use agents. For those unfamiliar, computer-use AI agents can click or tab around your computer and enter text as if you were using your mouse and keyboard. So this means that Abridge is likely trying to build automation that replaces manual data entry that staff have to perform using annoying, brittle user interfaces. Therefore, it’s important to note that while this is automating a toilsome task, this could impact healthcare roles whose sole duties are data entry. * But aside from acquisitions, a big theme of these past couple months has been more offices and other facilities for local tech firms! Let’s take a look at a few. * A 10-year, $450M Pittsburgh office expansion was announced by Air, the defense software firm formerly known as Govini. This expansion will include the addition of 40 jobs, and the company seems to be doing much better after it removed Pittsburgh founder Eric Gillespie from its board last year after felony charges. * Gecko Robotics is also expanding with a 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility outside Sewickley in an industrial park. The site is projected to be operational within weeks and focused on manufacturing components to expand the Navy’s shipbuilding capabilities, rather than just Gecko’s original focus on ship maintenance. * Swiss hardware stress testing company Acutronic Group pledged $14M–$30M for a Pittsburgh facility adding roughly 100 jobs. The Waterfront Drive company says the site would be the world’s largest, built specifically for aerospace, defense and automotive motion stress-testing, and doubling its PA workforce over five years. * A $10M shared classified facility with a SCIF is on the way to RIDC’s Mill 19 at Hazelwood Green. The 11,000 sq ft security building is funded by RIDC (for those unfamiliar, the non-profit Regional Industrial Development Corporation), the Commonwealth and the U.S. Dept. of War’s Defense Innovation Unit, with more than a dozen committed tenants including Google spinout Aalyria (I can’t think of a worse name for something) and CMU deepfake-detection startup Voicd (which is a much better name). * Hellbender, a local robotics firm which has rebranded itself as a “physical AI” company (rolls eyes), doubled its Pittsburgh footprint with a 10-year lease on 90,000 sq ft at the Roundhouse in Hazelwood Green and expects to hire 500 people locally over five years. This was a snub to the folks behind Bakery Square, who really wanted Hellbender to move in there, but their CEO said they just did not have enough space to accommodate the company. An accompanying 60,000 sq ft Mill 19 manufacturing facility is also scheduled to open in early 2027. * Last but not least, Fujitsu became the second corporate tenant at CMU’s Robotics Innovation Center at Hazelwood Green. The move expands the Fujitsu-Carnegie Mellon Physical AI (eyes are still actively rolling) Research Center inside the 150,000 sq ft facility, joining the facility’s first tenant, FieldAI. * A few noteworthy things happened regarding data centers as well. Here are some highlights. * Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Executive Order 2026-05 imposing new conditions on data center development without a moratorium. Projects must now sign DEP consent orders incorporating GRID Standards (“GRID” being a typical government acronym for “Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development”) in order to be eligible for the Permit Fast Track Program. Otherwise, they will lose a 6% equipment sales tax exemption and must cover their own grid upgrade costs. * Pennsylvania’s $50.8B budget also sets new energy rules for data centers. Data centers that exceed a certain threshold of peak energy usage must collect data on their an annual energy and water usage and report it to the Department of Environmental Protection. * Public Source published “ICE, a Data Center & a Town Divided,” a deep investigation into what’s been going on in Springdale Borough, including the data center controversy. Community members are deeply upset about “a lack of transparency and accountability in the town’s governance.” But borough council members say they voted for the data center “reluctantly, saying they couldn’t oppose it without risking a costly lawsuit because the developer had met the zoning requirements.” Absolutely phenomenal reporting from Public Source and well worth a read. * Niche.com laid off about 10% of its workforce halfway through August, according to multiple sources inside the company. Folks were affected across a few different roles, including several long-tenured employees. The company has also started a tiger team internally to help both grow and protect its revenue. The combination of these signals seems to indicate the company may be headed for an acquisition in the near future, but no information on any potential transaction has yet been released. As a former employee, this was hard to hear. Wishing the best to everyone affected, and hope remaining employees can find a way to move forward and succeed. * Other local Pittsburgh tech professionals affected by layoffs include IT workers at Pittsburgh-headquartered law firm K&L Gates, which cut about 10% of its non-lawyer workforce (roughly 180 “allied professional” roles). Given the corporate non-answer from a company spokesperson in the release, the driving reasons for the cuts are unclear. * Technical.ly put out some great profiles of local tech professionals as part of its RealLIST Innovators 2026 for Pittsburgh. The list is built from community nominations and past reporting and has run in Pittsburgh since 2021. They also did a profile on Kenya Porter, founder of Explore PGH Tech Week (this website is looking decidedly better this year!), who’s working to connect underrepresented students and workers to the region's tech economy. * And to end on a fun note, local startup Silly Surfacing demoed its automatic pothole-filling device! The rig with the robot is essentially a truck with a hole in the bed. The truck pulls over a pothole, then scans it with sensors, creating a 3D model of its size and shape (shown at the top of the post). Then, it spews out just the right amount of asphalt to fill it. The truck finally smashes the asphalt in-place by running over it. Honestly, so sick. Someone please give them funding so they can fix our roads. For the Days Ahead * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * There are a whole bunch of events to check out during Explore PGH Tech Week starting on September 10th! View them all here. * Tuesday, September 15th, PyData Pittsburgh is hosting Researcher to Founder: Building from -1 to 0, an event unpacking “how ambitious research becomes a product, a team, and ultimately an enduring technology company.” Sign up here. * Robotics and AI Discovery Day is back this year on September 16th at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center! I had an amazing time at last year’s event and plan to attend again this year. Sign up to attend or exhibit here. * Pittsburgh TechFest 2026 is back on October 30th, and they’re still accepting submissions for speakers if you’d like to throw your name in the ring! Sign up to speak or attend here. * Finally, as the weather gets colder, I’m starting to queue up my DIY projects for the winter. If you’re like me and want to add a fun tech project to your list, hundreds of Western PA residents have joined WPAMesh, a license-free off-the-grid mesh radio network with coverage in Pittsburgh, as well as Allegheny, Westmoreland, Butler, Armstrong, Indiana, and Beaver counties. I’ll be joining the mesh this winter! Check it out here. * Do YOU have an event or product launch you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! Bonus posts coming soon. Till then, enjoy the start of PSL season! —Austin Pittsburgh Tech Beat is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, subscribe today for free! Built by Muster Systems LLC This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

  2. Jul 8

    The Monthly Beat - July 4th Hotdog Hangover Edition

    Hello hello, and welcome back to the Monthly Beat! Hope you all had a fantastic 4th. I saw a lot of bad press about the health effects of hotdogs recently, but I will go on record as having eaten seven over the weekend—two at the family cookout, four as leftovers from the cookout, and one at a Wawa (I have yet to try the Paul Skenes “Big Glizzy” at Sheetz). As we all continue to recover from our weekend cookouts, let’s take a look at what’s been cooking in the local tech scene. Pittsburgh Tech Beat is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, subscribe today for free! What Happened the Past Few Weeks * Pittsburgh Technology Council (PTC) has chosen a side in the debate around data centers, asking for a moratorium on legislation to regulate the construction of data centers. Brian Kennedy, a vice president at PTC, said that most of the regulation is driven by “fear of the unknown.” The linked article shares a contrasting view from Rep. Steele, D-Fox Chapel, whose district includes Springdale and said “(Developers) are not going to abandon Pennsylvania because they have to pay taxes.” I tend to agree with Rep. Steele and think taxes would allow the local community to benefit from what is otherwise a very bad deal for locals. But I’d love to hear your perspective in the comments! * Agility Robotics, maker of the humanoid robot “Digit”, plans to go public after being acquired by a SPAC, Churchill Capital Corp. XI. You may remember Agility Robotics from my coverage of Pittsburgh AI & Robotics Discovery Day last year. For those unfamiliar, a SPAC is a “special purpose acquisition company”, a public shell company that raises funds via IPO to merge with a private company in order to then take the private company public. This particular SPAC is the latest in a string of SPACs all led by the same guy: Michael Klein. His most successful story was the acquisition of Lucid, the EV company, but that was 7 SPACs ago (Churchill Capital Corp IV). Lucid isn’t doing too hot right now, and Klein’s later SPACs have a mixed track record at best. So it remains to be seen whether this acquisition will be good for Agility in the long term, but now I’m craving SPAK. * KEF Robotics, a local startup making software that allows aircraft to fly without a pilot or map, landed a $1.25M contract with the Air Force. In the linked interview with Technical.ly, co-founder and CEO Fraser Kitchell said, “We do have a national and international reach, but [Pittsburgh] is where we still spend most of our time.” It’s always great to see companies like KEF not only taking off, but also staying local! * CMU’s National Science Foundation AI Institute for Societal Decision Making (NSF AI-SDM) and Meta are partnering up to develop AI tools for emergency response. Researchers for the initiative aim to use mobility and connectivity data that Meta collects from your phone through the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp apps in combination with satellite imagery to help get people evacuated before a disaster and better coordinate community returns in the aftermath. Meta sells your personal mobility/connectivity data to make money (unless you turn it off), so it’s nice to see them doing something good with this data for a change. But the government can also get this data through carrier records, so there’s really no public safety reason to have a Meta app installed. * Last but not least, Pittsburgh Media Partnership put out a collection of pieces this past month about the local tech ecosystem that are all super good. You really do not want to miss these! * Mia Hollie of Pittsburgh’s Public Source went deep on the history of Pittsburgh’s tech scene and how it has progressed, plus what it will need to develop further in the future. * Alice Crow of Technical.ly dove into how the City of Pittsburgh is working in earnest to get its guidelines for AI usage caught up with the times. * Megan Harris of City Cast Pittsburgh led a great discussion around whether or not Pittsburgh can hold onto its tech startups. For the Days Ahead * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * For local Black professionals, founders, and creatives, check out the Black Startups & Tech Meetup, hosted at Avenu: Meyran at 5pm Monday, July 20th. Sign up here. * July 24th from 10am till noon, Innovation Works is hosting Cafe IW: Building Where You Are, where you can take part in an interactive conversation exploring how Pittsburgh and Nashville are competing in today’s innovation economy. Add to your calendar here. * PghAI has their monthly meetup this month on Wednesday, July 29th at 8pm. Events usually include a talk or two, jam sessions, and mingling with other local AI practitioners. Sign up here. * Robotics and AI Discovery Day is back this year on September 16th at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center! I had an amazing time at last year’s event and plan to attend again this year. Sign up to attend or exhibit here. * Do YOU have an event or product launch you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! Bonus posts coming soon. Till then, enjoy the cooler weather this week! —Austin Pittsburgh Tech Beat is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, subscribe today for free! Built by Muster Systems LLC This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

  3. Jun 16

    The Monthly Beat - June '26 Edition

    Good afternoon! Hope you have been having an amazing summer thus far. As the weather heats up, so is the Pittsburgh tech scene, so let’s get into it! Pittsburgh Tech Beat is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. What Happened the Past Few Weeks * In a huge win for Pittsburgh tech, Astrobotic has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Voyager Technologies, with Astrobotic’s Pittsburgh HQ to become “the center of Voyager’s strategic lunar initiative, ensuring continuity and momentum for upcoming missions.” That’s right; they aren’t moving. They’re going to keep building this stuff right here in Pittsburgh in preparation for their role in the Moon Base II mission with NASA, in which Astrobotic will be putting 1,100lb of cargo (including their special rover) on the Moon using their Griffin lander. Excited to see where they go next! * Speaking of acquisitions, Mapless AI was acquired by FORT Robotics. Mapless was just recently in the news for making an automatic parking payment system for Waymo’s autonomous vehicles. Now, FORT will integrate the Mapless remote monitoring and operating technology into FORT’s platform “allowing off-site specialists to monitor and operate vehicles from a safe distance.” * Meanwhile, Gray Swan, a Shadyside-based AI security company spun out from CMU, raised $40M in Series A funding this past month. The company hopes to use the funds to hire and expand the go-to-market strategy for their suite of AI security tools, which include a real-time AI monitoring and protection platform called Cygnal and a “continuous global competition where more than 15,000 researchers and security professionals attack AI models to uncover vulnerabilities” dubbed Arena. Sounds like a fun time. * For CMU’s graduation ceremony this year, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang came to town to give the keynote address. One thing that stuck out to me about his remarks was, “We have the opportunity… to reindustrialize America and restore our capacity to build.” While I respect Huang’s decision to come through Pittsburgh and share his take to new grads, I’m skeptical of the idea that the data center boom that NVIDIA helped instigate will reindustrialize the country sustainably. One needs only to examine Meta’s data center to see this; the $10 billion project will only employ around 300 people after construction. * As one might expect, community resistance to data center projects continues to mount around the Greater Pittsburgh Area. Springdale residents are now asking the county to step in where they feel the borough has failed them in blocking a data center project funded by developer Allegheny DC. Upper Burrell is passing ordinance to regulate data centers after public outcry about TECFusions’ plans for a data center. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Dave McCormick is rushing to the defense of the Homer City Redevelopment data center project, which is the largest in the country. “People have anxiety about AI and data centers, and I understand that, but a lot of it is uninformed,” said McCormick. Personally, I find it pretty obvious why locals would feel overwhelmed by all of this, and I wouldn’t call them “uninformed”. * Feeling overwhelmed, local open source software advocate Chad Whitacre is “Retiring from Tech to Live Offline.” The now former Head of Open Source at Sentry posted a type-written letter on his blog describing how he hasn’t used a phone or the internet since February 6th of this year and plans to get a job at Home Depot. Honestly, I can’t blame him, and it’s a great read. But don’t worry, folks; I have no plans to become “Internet Amish” anytime soon, so you’ll still be getting this newsletter. * To end on a more positive note, Aurora is now using its autonomous trucks to deliver food to the OG (a.k.a. the Olive Garden, for those who are unfamiliar). This will be done through their new partnership with McLane Company, which is one of the largest distributors in America serving “America’s most beloved restaurant brands” such as the aforementioned OG and, dare I say, Cheddar’s. It’s pretty amazing that unlimited breadsticks are still a thing in 2026, so hopefully the advances in safety and cost efficiency from Aurora’s autonomous trucks can keep them around for years to come. For the Days Ahead * Tonight is Robotics & Tech Happy Hour, held by Pittsburgh Robotics Network at the Westin! Tickets are $20 for tech professionals and leaders. Sign up here. * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * PyData Pittsburgh is hosting their next talk on Thursday, June 25th covering robot-assisted exoskeletons for individuals with spinal cord injury. Fascinating topic, and I would be there except that AI@Work is on the same night. AI@Work is sold out, though, so if you’re not going to that, go to this! Sign up here. * The next Code & Supply Build Night is Monday, June 29th. Build Night is an impromptu coworking space where you can hack on anything you want, pair up with folks, and learn from each other. Sign up here. * Robotics and AI Discovery Day is back this year on September 16th at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center! I had an amazing time at last year’s event and plan to attend again this year. Sign up to attend or exhibit here. * Do YOU have an event or product launch you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! That’s all for now. Enjoy the summer weather! —Austin Pittsburgh Tech Beat is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Built by Muster Systems LLC This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

  4. May 4

    The Monthly Beat - May '26 Edition

    Good morning and May the 4th be with you everybody! Hope you’ve been having a great start to the warm months despite how insanely cold it was this past weekend. I covered the first half of April in my last post, so this is another shorter one, but let’s take a look at what went down in the back half of the month. Pittsburgh Tech Beat is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. What Happened the Back Half of April * Astrobotic set what is believed to be a new record with a 300 second hot fire of a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) (pictured above). What is the difference between an RDRE and a conventional rocket engine? Well, “unlike conventional rocket engines, RDREs combust propellants using supersonic detonation waves that rotate around the engine’s ring-shaped outer body.” If you want to see it in action, the company shared a video of the test on YouTube straight from the NASA facility where it happened down in Alabama. It looks so freaking cool. * Technical.ly broke a story about a local startup founder using an undisclosed LinkedIn alias to conceal his criminal past. Founder Michael Riley appears to have been using LinkedIn under the name “Michael Reilly,” which could be a violation of Megan’s Law since Riley was on supervised release after pleading guilty to the charge of possessing child sexual abuse material. Between this and the four felony charges against Govini founder Eric Gillespie for child sex crimes late last year, the reality of criminals lurking among our local tech leaders is deeply concerning to say the least. But I am thankful for the journalists at Technical.ly who reported on this most recent case and the law enforcement response in both cases. Let’s hope this is the end of it. * Local universities Pitt and CMU are teaming up with Penn, Penn State, Drexel, Lehigh, and Temple Universities for a statewide AI initiative dubbed “Keystone AI + Quantum Factory.” There were a lot of statements from a lot of different people about this one, but essentially the idea is that the universities will share infrastructure to host AI and quantum computing, empowering not only their students and employees, but also startups and businesses across the state through strategic partnerships. The initiative’s corresponding website looks like it was slapped together by an AI, with several visual issues on both mobile and desktop, but I’ll be keeping tabs on it for any substantive progress towards these lofty goals. * The NFL Draft-adjacent Forge to Field AI Pitch Competition, featuring billionaire Mark Cuban, resulted in $1.8 million in funding designated for Pittsburgh startups. The competition was supposed to center on sports technologies, but it looks like there were a lot of folks that just spun their already-existing startup to sound sports-y (fair play, in my opinion, with Cuban in attendance). The two startups that seemed to be actual sports technology, though, were ServeSense, a startup building a sensor that fits inside the handles of tennis racquets, and Sensi Fit, a startup building sensors to easily generate data from athletic training drills. Both seem like great ideas, but my stickler self can’t help but notice that neither website has a favicon. Yinz better fix that if you expect more funding; it’s not hard! * And now for a couple quick hits. Niche announced a partnership with consulting group Huron to combine Niche’s real-time student intent data with Huron’s enrollment and tuition revenue forecasting. Seems like a good fit. * Aurora is expanding their partnership with Hirschbach Motor Lines to add 500 more driverless trucks to their arsenal. Hirschbach’s CEO is quoted saying, “The Aurora Driver will handle the lengthier, less desirable routes, providing our drivers with greater flexibility. It’s a win-win.” * And finally, a meta-note: the Post-Gazette’s new owners, the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, have laid off 40-50% of the paper’s staff. My blog stands on the shoulders of so many great local journalists, and while it is encouraging to know the paper will still be around, fewer staff means less coverage of local issues, which negatively impacts everyone. My heart goes out to those who have lost their jobs. For the Days Ahead * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * May 14th, ProductTank Pittsburgh is doing a meetup about vibecoding. If you haven’t vibecoded anything yet, you need to get there. It’s super fun. Register here. * And in case you didn’t get enough Product-type action there, Product Camp Pittsburgh 2026 is Saturday, May 16th at La Roche. I have never been, but I’ve heard great things! Sign up here. * Robotics and AI Discovery Day is back this year on September 16th at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center! I had an amazing time at last year’s event and plan to attend again this year. Sign up to attend or exhibit here. * Do YOU have an event or product launch you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! Keep an eye out for a bonus post this coming weekend, but for now, have a wonderful start to your week! —Austin Pittsburgh Tech Beat is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Built by Muster Systems LLC This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

  5. Apr 20

    The Monthly Beat - April '26 Edition

    Sorry for the delay on this one. Life is still so busy. But hey, here we are with a shorter one. And when the next one hits in May, I swear it will drop at the beginning of the month, and we’ll be back on schedule. For now, enjoy this collection of the most interesting news from the past few weeks! Let’s dive in. Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Subscribe for free (or optionally paid) to receive new posts and support my work. What Happened the Past Few Weeks * Skild AI announced a few new partnerships, including one with NVIDIA and Foxconn which will have its “robot brain” powering the assembly of NVIDIA’s flagship Blackwell chips. Currently, this task is done by humans at Foxconn, a factory notorious for its lack of care for humans. So sadly, it’s not astounding that folks are trying to remove humans from the equation entirely. Skild now also has its eye (or rather, A-eye?) on replacing humans in warehouses with its acquisition of Zebra’s robotics division. You may know Zebra for the scanners they make, which are used in most Walmarts to determine how many energy drinks teenagers stole. * Abridge is now moving into the controversial prior auth space with Highmark Health and AHN. For those unfamiliar with what “prior auth” is, it’s short for “prior authorization” for medical insurance coverage and it’s the reason Luigi Mangione became an alleged murderer. Prior auth is widely viewed as problematic and unethical, as it often results in the delay or denial of care. Many companies, now including Abridge, are trying to develop AI to make the process more real-time, but depending on the implementation, it can actually cause more patients to be unjustly denied care (as in Mangione’s case.) One can only hope that Abridge will do right by patients and providers, but I am sus as always. * Ok, last bummer I swear. The Pittsburgh International Race Complex was sold for $50 million and will likely be the site of—you guessed it—a new data center. Over 400 acres, including the track were purchased by an LLC with headquarters in Dallas, Texas, a well-known tax shelter. The LLC appears to be a subsidiary of a data center company, as real estate documents were signed by the president of Provident Data Centers. The Post-Gazette piece linked is a sad, but great read, highlighting the perspectives of affected community members. At the state level, the PA House of Representatives just passed a bill to improve data center regulation, but Republicans seem to be on track to kill it in the senate before it can become law, given their current rhetoric. * Alright, with the bummer stories out of the way, let’s get to some fun stuff. Aurora, Duolingo, and Gather AI all made Fast Company’s 2026 Most Innovative Companies list! Congrats to all of you Aurorans, Duos, and Gatherers. Well-deserved (although the folks that bought Duolingo stock at $540/share last year are still in my prayers.) * Local startups Meter Feeder and Mapless AI are going to make autonomous vehicles (AVs) pay for parking, just like the rest of us! When an AV pulls up to a curb and shifts into Park, it’ll send a request to Meter Feeder’s API to calculate the cost and pay the city. Good to see our new robo-chauffeurs paying their fair share. * Speaking of AVs, Waymo is soon rolling out pothole detection in Pittsburgh. The company will make this data available to both the city and Waze users, making it easier for the city to find and repair potholes and for drivers to avoid them. * PGH Lab, “a six-month paid program for local startups to test new technologies and services with the city government,” has announced their latest cohort. The four startups include technologies such as underwater robots, drones, mapping systems, and (of course) AI. Best of luck to all involved! * Pittsburgh-based Niche.com released their 2026 Best Places to Live, with Atlantic Station, GA coming in at #1. Places to Live is such a beloved Niche feature, and it’s always fun to see how Pittsburgh neighborhood rankings change each year. My neighborhood of Bellevue came in at #3,107 with our lowest grade being in Crime & Safety. If you’re in Bellevue, please stop doing so much crime so we can get to #1. K, thanks. * Speaking of #1, last but not least, we had the #1 Trending GitHub Developer, Pittsburgh’s very-own Nate Brake on the blog recently. If you didn’t catch his piece, definitely give it a read or watch the video. He implemented a fantastic idea that puts purpose-built AI in the hands of ordinary folks working in the trades. For the Days Ahead * Tomorrow, Pittsburgh Robotics Network will be hosting their Robotics & Tech Happy Hour at The Reserve. Tickets are $20 for tech professionals. Sign up here. * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * This Friday and Saturday, I’ll be volunteering at the 2026 NFL Draft! My assigned role as a wayfinder is on the North Shore. If you see me, please come say hi and feel free to ask where the hot dogs or the nearest bathrooms are. Excited to rep our city and see Wiz perform Friday night! * May 14th, ProductTank Pittsburgh is doing a meetup about vibecoding. Please, product people, filter your prototypes for slop before handing them to engineers and register here. * And in case you didn’t get enough Product-type action there, Product Camp Pittsburgh 2026 is Saturday, May 16th at La Roche. I have never been, but I’ve heard great things! Sign up here. * Do YOU have an event you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! One Final Note You may have noticed that I’ve enabled optional paid subscriptions on the blog. As you can probably imagine, even with AI assistance, researching and curating the most interesting local tech news for this blog takes time and effort. It takes even more time and effort for me to write about it, since I never use AI assistance for the writing portion to establish trust with you, the reader, in my authentic voice. At the same time, I’d like to do more with this blog, including more interviews, podcasts, and in-person investigations. Towards that end, my latest posts will remain free, but posts older than 1 year will now be behind a paywall for folks who want to dig into the archives. If you choose to become a paying subscriber, you will gain immediate access to the archives and be supporting future content. I love this city and want to see its budding tech community recognized for the absolute gem that it is. So if you’re with me, and you want to see this blog/podcast become an even better source for coverage of the local tech scene, please consider a paid subscription. Thank you, as always, for your support. That’s it for this month. Have a great week! —Austin Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free (or optionally paid) to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

  6. Mar 16

    The Monthly Beat - March '26 Edition

    Good morning! I am back from a distant land, recovered from jet lag, and ready to write this post now. The new PIT airport is great though, and contrasts strongly with Chicago’s ORD, most of which feels like a crowded alleyway wrapped in plastic. Anyways, let’s take a look at what’s been going down in the local tech scene. Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. What Happened the Past Few Weeks * The CMU Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) was officially opened in Hazelwood Green (pictured above). Several CMU big wigs, leaders from Hazelwood community organizations, and Governor Josh Shapiro were in attendance for the robot-assisted ribbon-cutting ceremony. The space is huge, and is the target for $1.5 million state grant to fund a “Physical AI Accelerator” to host collaboration among local startups and CMU researchers. * Shortly after the RIC was opened, CMU announced a big event for the space in partnership with the AI Strike Team: they’re bringing in Mark Cuban for a $1,575,000 sports technology pitch competition the day before the NFL Draft. The event is invite-only (I’ve been poking some of my contacts to see if I can get in, we’ll see.) If you’re interested in pitching, though, you can submit an application on this page. * FieldAI, a company focused on embodied AI in robotics, is the first firm to inhabit the CMU RIC. They were featured heavily in the opening ceremony, and they appear to have the same general goal as Skild: building a universal robot brain that can operate any sort of hardware. They are also hiring like crazy. * Speaking of hiring, Gather.ai landed $40M in funding to help with their global expansion, platform development, and scaling their team. They did not disclose their new valuation, but their hiring page is showing some new roles for those who may be interested. * Aurora continued to expand their driverless trucking operations across the Sun Belt. Aurora driverless trucks are now on the roads between Dallas and Houston, Fort Worth and El Paso, El Paso and Phoenix, Fort Worth and Phoenix, and Dallas and Laredo with a perfect safety record thus far. The company has also updated its software to handle more inclement weather, stating that “inclement weather of all types constrained Aurora’s driverless operations in Texas roughly 40% of the time last year.” * Technical.ly published updates to their AI data center project tracker page, showing some progress in a few cases. Notably, there doesn’t appear to be any publicly announced progress towards Anthropic’s $1 million partnership with CMU, and a project engineer said electrical work may begin this spring on the $15 billion, 700-acre data centers near Carlisle. * Just across the state line, West Virginia University Medicine is expanding its use of Pittsburgh-based Abridge’s AI medical transcription systems. The software is saving doctors about 11 minutes per day and “staff who use Abridge also report feeling less stressed or burnt out,” according to Dr. David Rich, Chief Medical Information Officer at WVU Medicine. * Also in health tech, Xlue, a local startup developing cancer-catching AI, had a great profile piece in Technical.ly. The company has been training its models on health records in Taiwan, and the models are now able to predict cancer with 50-70% accuracy. They are hoping to partner with UPMC soon to gain secure access to more health records with which they can continue to improve accuracy while maintaining patient privacy. * Meanwhile, up in Troy Hill, startup BioInterphase just moved into to the old Troy Hill firehouse after a beautiful renovation. According to the article, though, the firehouse is rumored to be haunted, and “a medium who the team had come through the space recently said the rumors are true.” The building is apparently inhabited by three protective spirits; hopefully the company can appease them. * Local web designer guru Brad Frost shared a fantastic video essay on this moment in AI (you can also read it as a text post if you prefer that!) Definitely worth a watch/read if you’ve been trying to process the cognitive whiplash of current events. * Last but not least, Astrobotic has been awarded a contract by Italy’s space agency to develop a lunar wheel. I’d love to see a lunar Ferrari rocking a set of these: For the Days Ahead * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * This Wednesday, Pittsburgh’s local chapter of getWITit is holding an event entitled Women in Technology: Perspectives Across Career Stages at BNY. The event will be a moderated panel discussion featuring women from many different stages in their tech careers. Sign up here. * This Thursday’s AI@Work meetup is sold out. This is without question the best local AI meetup geared towards folks actually building things with AI. If you’re interested in joining the community and/or attending the next meetup, sign up here. * Also this week, there’s a high school robotics competition at the convention center downtown. Admission is free! You can view the schedule here or watch the livestream at the links shown here. * Coming up next week on March 26th, PyData has another event at CoLab18 called An Unexpected Journey: Life Lessons from Conquering Tesla Solar with Python, a talk about “the unexpected lessons you learn when you trust your instincts and refuse to accept ‘it’s working fine’ as an answer.” Sign up here. * Just before the NFL Draft, Pittsburgh Robotics Network will be hosting their Robotics & Tech Happy Hour on April 21st at The Reserve. Tickets are $20 for tech professionals. Sign up here. * If you want an easy way to be notified of local tech events more often than monthly, check out this Luma calendar hosted by Charles Mansfield III. It rocks. * Do YOU have an event you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! That’s it for this month. Have a great rest of your week! —Austin Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

  7. Feb 12

    The Monthly Beat - February '26 Edition

    Good morning! The snow piled up everywhere around the city is finally melting. Now that my pipes have unfrozen, I can finally get around to writing this blog. While everyone may have been staying in during this cold weather, Pittsburgh tech companies were on the move. Let’s get into it. Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. What Happened the Past Few Weeks * Tech stocks have been getting cooked by AI fears, with Duolingo being the biggest loser from its 52-week high based on the above data from Deutsche Bank. A little over a year ago, I reported on how executives at Duolingo were saying “AI” a bunch, then selling all of their shares at an historically high price. In that post, I theorized that the selloff was a tacit acknowledgement from leadership that their stock was significantly overvalued from their “AI” posturing. We will likely never know whether the timing of this selloff was coincidental or intentional, but the market seems to have agreed that the stock was, in fact, overvalued. Could it come back? Is there any way to disable Lucy? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! * Wabtec expanded their operations in eastern India with a new service model that leverages existing Indian Railways infrastructure and staff. The company will be providing maintenance, supervision, material and warehouse management, shed control, logistics, and remote diagnostics to Indian Railways operators. Wabtec also landed a massive order from New York’s MTA for new hybrid locomotives loaded with the latest sensors and safety technology. * Niche.com quietly laid off a few employees, bringing its headcount back under 300 for the first time in several years. Discovered this initially through posts on LinkedIn and confirmed with sources. After its new college cost comparison tool was featured in the New York Times, the company is seeking to streamline its operations to become more profitable. * Aurora is now integrated with McLeod Software, allowing more carriers to use its autonomous trucks to handle shipments. McLeod makes Transportation Management System (TMS) software that allows users to manage and book trucking capacity. Now, anyone who has a subscription to Aurora Driver can “tender” (today I learned what this means in trucking, and it’s not referring to delicious fried chicken) shipments in their McLeod TMS to be handled by autonomous trucks, removing the need for separate web portals, etc. * Technical.ly published some pretty great Pittsburgh-based interview pieces this past month, including one of the City of Pittsburgh’s CIO who resigned after 8 years. Favorite quote from this one was, “Pittsburgh is not able to keep up with the salaries for high-tech IT workers… The further behind they get with that, the harder it becomes to fill those positions.” Max Polec, a well-known local startup coach who is now leaving Pittsburgh, also did an interview in which he clapped back at local critics, saying “I started my first business at 15. I’m 30 now. Do the math.” Finally, local CEO Cara Jones, who is using AI to fight human trafficking at Marinus Analytics, did an interview sharing her story. Her advice to founders: “As long as you’re making forward progress, and you’re making an impact, stay the course.” * Pittsburgh tech companies had a good showing at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. According to the Post-Gazette, Strip District-based Aurora, Canonsburg-based Ansys/Synopsys, Bloomfield Robotics in Lawrenceville, North Side-based Bucket Robotics, Hazelwood-based Motional, Squirrel Hill-based Hellbender, and Westinghouse in Cranberry were all in attendance. I would also like to be in attendance next year if anyone has an extra ticket? * Speaking of the Post-Gazette, on a meta note, I had the chance to attend this Pittsburgh Tomorrow event about the future of Pittsburgh journalism with the Post-Gazette announcing its closure. The event featured a panel of local leaders from the journalism community—WESA, The Trib, Public Source, Pittsburgh Courier, and more represented. I’ll have some more thoughts to share on this in an upcoming post, but looks like a billionaire is already swooping in to buy the Post-Gazette. * Local open source guru Chad Whitacre shared a post and documentary he released last month on how open source software can help fight tyranny. A great and hopeful watch! * Last but definitely not least, local physician Desmond Daley published a fantastic opinion piece entitled Pittsburgh’s AI skepticism isn’t ignorance. It’s memory. I’m not going to spoil it here, but it’s a must-read. For the Days Ahead * If you’ve been messing with AI lately, you’ve probably heard of Claude Skills. Local AI technologist Ian Cook built a hub for Claude Skills made by Pittsburghers: Skills N’At! You can try other people’s Skills that have already been uploaded or even submit your own on the site. Give it a try! * Got no plans TONIGHT? There’s an open mic night for local tech founders, researchers, and technologists to pitch companies and share ideas at that new coworking space in Hazelwood Green. Sign up here. * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * Monday, February 23rd, Code & Supply is hosting their recurring Build Night, a time to get together with other folks and build stuff with code at Avenu: Meyran. Sign up here. * Wednesday, February 25th, PyData Pittsburgh’s first event of 2026 will be Characterizing the Transient Universe with the Pitt-Google Alert Broker. Learn about cutting-edge AI applications in astronomy while exploring one of Pittsburgh’s most fascinating scientific landmarks, the Allegheny Observatory (tours will be offered after the talk)! I was at last year’s talk at the observatory, and I cannot recommend this enough. Sign up here. * Coming up on March 26th, PyData has another event at CoLab18 called An Unexpected Journey: Life Lessons from Conquering Tesla Solar with Python, a talk about “the unexpected lessons you learn when you trust your instincts and refuse to accept ‘it’s working fine’ as an answer.” Sign up here. * Do YOU have an event you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! That’s it for this month. Have a great rest of your week! —Austin Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

  8. Jan 6

    The Monthly Beat - January '26 Edition

    Good morning and welcome back to the Monthly Beat. This month, I’ll be covering the most interesting pieces of news from both November and December 2025, local events you’ll want to check out in this brand New Year, along with some articles that were featured right here on this very blog! Let’s take a look at the tail end of 2025. Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. What Happened over the Holidays * As Allentown loses its T run and Pittsburghers generally continue to lament the lack of public transportation funding, Waymo has announced the expansion of its driverless taxi service to Pittsburgh. Gleefully appropriating the word “yinz” for their ad copy with a “Yinz ready to ride?”, the company says that several members of their team are already Pittsburgh-based and the city “has a special place in autonomous vehicle history.” While they are currently authorized to operate with a driver onboard in Philly, Waymo has yet to secure a compliance license from PennDOT to operate with or without a driver in Pittsburgh. * 10 years after its merger, Swedish assistive communication tech company Tobii Dynavox opened a new office in Coraopolis. This was a pretty lowkey headline, but I think it deserves a spotlight here because it’s a great Pittsburgh-centric tech story. Dynavox was an assistive device tech company founded and headquartered here in Pittsburgh that had some financial issues while competing with, well, the iPad. Tobii, a Swedish company that was also competing in the assistive technology space, saw a ton of value in Dynavox, and they offered to acquire it about 10 years ago. Fast-forward to now, the combined company employs over 300 people locally, and they’ve chosen to open a new office here in Pittsburgh rather than move elsewhere. * Astrobotic secured a $17.5M bag to develop reusable rockets. This infusion of funding “will accelerate development of both its Xodiac and Xogdor platforms, with three distinct vehicles in development.” (Is that… a reference to Trogdor the Burninator with an “X” swapped in for the “T”? Because if so, a multi-million dollar project is named after Trogdor and that’s hilarious.) * Previous shopping mall and beloved Pirates fan parking spot Nova Place is the latest thing to be marketed as a potential spot for an AI data center. Before anyone jumps to conclusions, I’m just going to quote the Post-Gazette article here: “Jeremy Kronman, vice chairman of CBRE’s Pittsburgh office, said listing the complex as a data center site rather than an office complex is a ‘pricing exercise’ meant to assess the property’s value as demand for data centers surges.” So in my opinion, this is at best a bad joke and at worst bubble behavior. * Speaking of AI, remember that “AI Strike Team”? They’re rebranding as “Strike Team 2.0” after shaking up their roster of executives. After taking credit for bringing Waymo to Pittsburgh (Side note: Show me the receipts, please. Waymo already had employees here for 10 years. While they seem to feel positively about the team, I’m not exactly sure what the team did.), and posting a few photos in suits, they now have many more actual tech people on the new roster. No one has a silly job title like “Senior AI Strategist” or is talking about “Stargate” anymore, so that’s probably a good sign. * And now for some quick hits. Synopsys is laying off 10% of its employees after acquiring Ansys. The layoffs are set to occur early this year, and it’s unclear how many of them will be of folks in the Pittsburgh area as of yet. * Gobble gobble! Just after Thanksgiving, Wabtec acquired Frauscher Sensor Technology Group for €675M (roughly $787.73M). The acquired Austrian company, with 700 employees located in 15 countries, makes railway signaling technologies that Wabtec is eager to incorporate with their other train tech. * Shortly after scoring a $3M contract to make AI drones for the military, AI company VISIMO filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Their reason for filing is perhaps a harbinger for the financial fates of other AI companies in 2026: “Continuous increase in debts”. * ICYMI, Pittsburgh-local software engineer Sean McPherson shared an opinion piece here on the blog, categorizing varying perspectives on AI. I’ve personally found this chart helpful in navigating conversations about AI with folks who think differently than I do about the technology. * Last but not least, I reported on two really incredible local events from the past two months, Pittsburgh Robotics & AI Discovery Day and CMU ETC’s Fall Fast. Check out those posts below if you’re interested! For the Days Ahead * Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here. * The best local AI builders group, AI@Work, is having its 1-year anniversary event January 22nd at 5:30pm. I unfortunately will be out of town for an on-site, but I will absolutely be there in spirit. The past year I’ve spent with this group has helped me not only build out a solid working relationship with AI agents, but also make sense of the whirlwind of change we’ve all been experiencing. Sign up here. * ProductTank Pittsburgh is hosting a workshop on service blueprinting, January 29th, from 6-8pm at the CMU Integrated Innovation Institute. “Susanna Zlotnikov will introduce what service blueprinting is, why it matters, and how teams can use it to tame complexity, align decisions, and spark innovation opportunities.” Sign up here. * Do YOU have an event you’d like to share on this very newsletter? Please hit me up! That’s all for now. Have a great start to your New Year! —Austin Thanks for reading Pittsburgh Tech Beat! Please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pghtechbeat.com

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About

News and analysis of the Pittsburgh tech scene. https://www.pghtechbeat.com/ www.pghtechbeat.com

Information

  • Creator
    Austin Orth
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Austin Orth
  • Show Website
    Pittsburgh Tech Beat