Pittsburgh means business. Nine Fortune 500 companies call Pittsburgh home: PNC, Wesco, United States Steel Corporation, PPG Industries, Viatris, Alcoa, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Wabtec and EQT Corporation. Other large companies with Pittsburgh headquarters include Eaton, Duolingo, American Eagle Outfitters, GNC, Highmark Health and UPMC. All of the Big Four accounting firms have offices in Pittsburgh, as do technology giants like Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Bosch and Honeywell.

Innovation abounds. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lander was named one of TIME magazine’s best inventions of 2022, and is scheduled to land on the Moon surface later this year. The magazine named Duolingo, another Pittsburgh company, one of the most influential companies for 2023, citing its use of artificial intelligence to accelerate language learning. Carnegie Mellon, a leader in AI since the field was created, was selected by the US. National Science Foundation to create a National Artificial Intelligence Research Institute here in Pittsburgh.

You can afford to buy a house here. The average home value in Pittsburgh is $229,643, says Zillow.  Compare that to $557,292 in Austin and $834,501 in Seattle. Ninety neighborhoods offer something for everyone.

Research happens here. The University of Pittsburgh ranks third among all universities in research dollars from the National Institutes of Health, with more than $1 billion in overall research funding in 2022. Millions more flow through Carnegie Mellon University and its National Robotics Engineering Center and Software Engineering Institute.

We’re building like crazy. Mill 19 is a former steel mill that’s been reimagined as a research center for robotics, advanced manufacturing and autonomous vehicles, boasting the largest rooftop solar array in the United States. Next door will be BioForge, a $250 million biomanufacturing center where scientists will create next-generation cell and gene therapies. Pittsburgh International Airport is building a new 811,000-square-foot terminal to accommodate the influx of innovators coming to and going from Pittsburgh.

There are robotics companies everywhere. Pittsburgh is the home of more than 110 robotics companies, many spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Well-funded startups like Aurora and Stack AV are developing self-driving vehicle platforms to make trucking safer and more efficient. Companies here are developing robots to perform surgeries, automate construction, clean and maintain environments, optimize warehouse tasks, and much more.

So much culture. There’s an entire museum devoted to native son Andy Warhol. The Carnegie Museum of Art collection includes more than 100,000 works, and right next door, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History offers one of the world’s finest dinosaur collections, with more than 230 specimens. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra routinely breaks with convention by featuring guests like Sting, rapper Frzy and its popular PSO Disrupt series.

Not just black and gold, but green. Pittsburgh International Airport was the first major U.S. airport to run on its own electric grid, operating on a microgrid fueled by 10,000 solar panels and five natural gas generators that powers the entire airport, its airfield, and on-site hotel. The Tower at PNC Plaza in Downtown Pittsburgh is one of the greenest high-rises ever built. EOS Energy Enterprises is manufacturing zinc-bromide batteries in a former Westinghouse factory, powered by a $398.6 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Beer here! There are more than 40 craft breweries here, putting Pittsburgh on the map. USA Today readers voted Pittsburgh’s annual Barrel & Flow Fest as the top beer festival in the country, and one website named Pittsburgh the No. 1 city for beer in 2023, citing a density of 2.3 breweries per 100,000 residents — 77 percent more than the average American city.