Do Pittsburgh’s robots rule the world?
A hydrogen hub (re)cap
While some local boosters have christened Pittsburgh the “Robotics Capital of the World,” many in the Twitterverse (or X-verse if you’re feeling proper) were perplexed to learn that the Steel City led the world in robotics fundraising in July. An anonymous political blogger tweeted a chart last weekend that shows local companies raked in more than $870 million that month, almost twice as much as second-place China.
So what the hell is going on here?
The tweet wondered: What could Pittsburgh’s robotics sector be planning? Commenters’ explanations ranged from an effort to replace the Steelers to a factory that churns out body doubles like Sen. John Fetterman’s1 to all-out world domination. But the more earnest minds in the thread pointed to Carnegie Mellon University’s world-renowned robotics program — a magnet for investment, right?
In reality, you don’t have to look far for the answer. Just check out the Robotics Business Review data that underlies the rankings. It shows that Aurora Innovation carried the ‘Burgh to the top, at least in July.
The self-driving tech company raised $820 million from public and private stock offerings. The firm says it now has enough runway to bring its autonomous trucking platform to market next year.
It continues to train the system on Texas highways with humans in the driver's seat. The trucks already transport goods for Uber Freight, FedEx, Schneider and other customers.
Astrobotic, meanwhile, brought in $34.6 million in NASA funding in July. The space company will use the money to test a system for transmitting power between a lunar lander tethered to a rover on the moon's surface.
Seegrid, an autonomous forklift maker, also received $16 million in development capital.
With numbers like these, it’s no wonder Pittsburgh’s robotics industry celebrated Christmas in July. We could witness another spike once the September rankings are released. That month, autonomous driving startup Stack AV announced it had launched with $1 billion in funding.
But there are still 10 other months in the year, so maybe don’t read too much into Pittsburgh’s flashes of overperformance.
But if you were wondering what it would look like if the robot uprising started in Pittsburgh, Substack’s AI offered us this…
Appalachia of my eye
Although Pennsylvania cheered its status last week as the only state to be part of two federally funded hydrogen hubs, the U.S. Department of Energy passed over a Pittsburgh-based proposal. Rather, the Steel City was left with a consolation prize in the form of a hub centered in West Virginia.
These competitions can often feel like a song-and-dance routine, so in the words of the Steel City’s own Abby Lee Miller of “Dance Moms” fame, “second is the first to lose.”
What did West Virginia propose? The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) will receive $925 million and be headquartered in Morgantown. The hub is expected to create 3,000 permanent jobs across 15 projects that also span Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio.
EQT Corp. is planning an aviation fuel facility in the Pittsburgh area, telling the Business Times that the investment could total $2 billion. KeyState Energy also plans to build a hydrogen production plant in central Pennsylvania. All told, WESA reports that Pennsylvania stands to gain between 150 to 550 permanent jobs in truck and aviation fuel.
What happened to Pittsburgh’s proposal? Team PA, a public-private partnership co-chaired by Gov. Josh Shapiro, submitted the similarly themed Decarbonization Network of Appalachia (DNA), which also focused on blue hydrogen.
The private half of the partnership brought the drama. The Post-Gazette reports that Norwegian energy company Equinor pulled out before the DNA application was even submitted. Mitsubishi Powers America replaced Equinor. But after the application was turned in, another original partner, Shell Chemical, which runs the ethylene cracker plant in Beaver County, pulled out to “reduce overall costs and improve the viability of DNA.”
Local unions are feeling hurt. DNA would have brought far more jobs to southwestern Pennsylvania than the West Virginia-based plan, many of them union jobs. “We will have a role in the WV-based ARCH 2 project, and some jobs will be created here and in other areas of the state, but certainly not at the level we had hoped,” Pittsburgh Works executive director Jeff Nobers said in a press release.
It could work out in the long run. The hubs were only meant to kickstart the hydrogen industry. If the pilots prove successful, Pittsburgh, and especially its heavy industry, would be well-positioned to benefit as the nascent hydrogen sector continues to scale up.
What’s the hype with hydrogen anyway? The federal government is handing out $7 billion to build seven regional hydrogen manufacturing facilities across the country. It’s part of the Biden Administration’s goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Hydrogen power can be used for jet planes and steel manufacturing, areas where renewable fuels and batteries aren’t feasible. But whether the energy is “clean” comes down to how it’s made. Green hydrogen is made with solar, wind or other renewable sources and gets a thumbs up from environmentalists.
Blue hydrogen is made from natural gas, and the resulting carbon emissions are stored underground. Researchers say that blue hydrogen could produce 20% more greenhouse gasses than burning traditional fossil fuels. In Pennsylvania, some Democrats are also concerned about a lack of state oversight and regulations.
Quick hits
🎫 A new era: The Pennsylvania House voted 193-10 to make it illegal to use bots to get around ticket sales systems, the latest sign of the power of Swifties. [Post-Gazette]
🎂 OG: Before there was 😃, Carnegie Mellon gave us :–) a.k.a. the emoticon. [ABC27]
🌚 Erie: If you want to see a total solar eclipse, don’t wait to book a trip to Erie on April 8, 2024, for an awe-inspiring experience. [NextPittsburgh]
Despite conspiracy theories to the contrary, Fetterman does not have a body double.
Maria:
As the folks in the news biz say, that chart has legs! You did a nice job of reporting on it, and you are maybe the only writer to respond who had a complex understanding of the numbers. And yes, I am a Pittsburgh booster and I have a vested interest in the success of robotics and other technology companies in the region. So, I am prone to be positive.
You are correct that the July numbers are only three companies and mostly just Aurora. And September is better due to one company's funding. Yes, it's only 2 months out of 12, but once the September numbers are in I will also share September AND year-to-date numbers in a similar format. Don't be surprised if Pittsburgh still exceeds most countries on the list.
This is reason for Pittsburgh to be proud, but it is also a reason for concern about the robotics industry as a whole -- because, for Jan-July, roughly 1/8 of the total global robotics funding went to just one city -- and that's Pittsburgh. Our share will go up with September's data.
Matt Beale
Daedalus, Pittsburgh
www.daed.com