THE city of Pittsburgh, the one-time steel capital that’s long been a symbol of Rust-Belt decline, is emerging as a vibrant hub for artificial intelligence, robotics and biomedical companies eager to tap a rich talent pool.

In 2014, the number of Pittsburgh-area private-sector jobs in the scientific and R&D sectors — excluding academic positions — for the first time exceeded those in iron and steel mills, which were the lifeblood of the economy until their collapse 30 years ago.

As of March, 2018, there were 41 percent more jobs in R&D than in the mills, according to the Pennsylvania Center for Workforce Information and Analysis.

Pockets of Pittsburgh now resemble a small-scale Silicon Valley, humming with fast-growing tech businesses that have attracted billions of dollars in private financing and young professionals commanding six-figure salaries. The city is a finalist for Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters.

Much of the new activity springs directly from the artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies pioneered at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, premiere academic institutions that have helped anchor the city through its industrial decline.

Twenty-three startups came out of the University of Pittsburgh in the last fiscal year, a record for the third straight year.

Innovation Works, an early-stage investment fund that backs local companies, is meeting with about four times as many startups than it did a decade ago, said president and CEO Rich Lunak.

Global investors are starting to pay attention, too. SoftBank Group Corp. last year led a US$93 million investment in Pittsburgh-based AI company Petuum. Innovation Works recently hosted 30 Chinese investors interested in robotics and health care startups, Lunak said. (SD-Agencies)