The Monthly Beat - January '26 Edition
A recap of the most interesting Pittsburgh tech news from the past few weeks, upcoming local tech events, and extras for the days ahead.
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.
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