If Utah is frontier energy and Ohio is mission proximity, Pittsburgh is becoming the AI nerve center of the modern defense landscape.
This summer, the AI Strike Team announced 6,000-sq-ft of secure communications workspace – known as SCIFs – at Bakery Square on the city’s AI Avenue.
Executive director Joanna Doven explained the significance:
“SCIFs are table stakes to even apply for an RFI with [DoW]. There are billions of dollars in contracts out right now – and we don’t have adequate SCIF space for our companies to even apply.”
The space – set to open in 2026 – sits next door to the Army’s Artificial Intelligence Center (AI2C).
“We have the largest federally trained AI unit in the nation right here – over 200 soldiers being trained on AI Avenue,” Doven told us.
AI talent + SCIF capacity + AI2C = a defense hub being constructed in real time.
