New testing facilities, robotics manufacturing and clean energy headed to Western PA. Here's a full breakdown of the major startup acquisitions, multimillion-dollar federal grants and classified labs announced during the Defense and Innovation Summit in Carlisle last week. The Defense and Innovation Summit dropped $10 billion in national investment announcements last week, and Pittsburgh snagged millions. Hosted by Sen. David McCormick and headlined by President Donald Trump, the two-day event at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, focused on the future of defense - from manufacturing and critical resources to AI and robotics. Among the 1,000-plus crowd in Carlisle, Pittsburgh's tech founders and researchers were out in full force. Universities, startups and advanced manufacturers all walked away with new investments or partnerships that could shape the region's tech economy for years to come. Here are the Pittsburgh announcements that matter most - and the context behind them. Pennsylvania's defense economy, from research to jobs. The commonwealth has about 9,000 defense-related companies employing some 90,000 people, McCormick said at the summit. Local researchers are a big part of that industry too. Wennie Tabib, who leads the Resilient Intelligence Systems Lab at Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU) Robotics Institute, showcased the org's recent advancements at the summit. Her team's autonomous drones can fly in complex, unstructured environments while carrying no more computing power than an average cellphone. "Search and rescue is the big [use case], but this is pretty fundamental technology," Tabib told Technical.ly. "You could use this to do things like get medical equipment to people." Universities play an outsized role in Pennsylvania's defense industry, according to Tom Foley, president of AICUP, the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania. His org represents more than 80 nonprofit academic institutions in the commonwealth. As federal defense funding flows into these schools, talent and research flow back out. "When you think about higher education, we don't often make that kind of connection," Foley said. There was little talk of current US conflicts during the summit, though, according to Foley. Trump did make a brief mention of the ongoing war with Iran during his opening remarks. "They do want to settle," Trump said. "We'll find out whether we settle with them or we just finish it off." The event built on McCormick's Energy and Innovation Summit, held last year on CMU's campus in Pittsburgh. That summit drew $90 billion in energy-related investment announcements, along with protests and controversy. Not every investment was actually new last year, and this year's summit followed the same pattern. New NSF engine targets power grid innovation. More than 60 organizations across Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia are working together to build an industrial energy innovation hub. Led by West Virginia University in partnership with CMU, the University of Pittsburgh and a long list of regional partners, the group - called the Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure (RETI) Consortium - landed a spot as one of 12 new National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines, following a competitive two-year selection process. The feds awarded RETI $160 million over the next 10 years through the program. The consortium will also receive another $161 million from philanthropic and private sector partners to advance hardware, software and AI-enabled tech to manage energy efficiency and storage for the power grid. For Pittsburgh's energy-tech founders, it means new fellowships, workshops, testing facilities and funding pathways over the next decade. The award also complements Allegheny County's recent clean tech initiative, ACT NOW, an executive order that directs county departments to prioritize clean tech and advanced manufacturing through investments, procurement and partnerships. Go deeper: Understanding an NSF Engine's impact EOS building battery storage for US defense dome. Energy storage manufacturer EOS announced a strategic partnership with the Department of War (DoW) to build energy storage tech for America's Golden Dome - a proposed, multi-layered missile and air defense system, similar to Israel's Iron Dome. The announcement did not disclose the contract amount but did describe it as a "multi-million partnership." EOS announced in October it would relocate its headquarters to Nova Place in Pittsburgh's North Side and expand operations in Allegheny County by the end of this year as part of a $350 million investment that would add some 700 new jobs to the commonwealth. Gecko Robotics expands manufacturing to Sewickley. The fast-growing robotics unicorn, Gecko Robotics, announced plans to open a new 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Sewickley soon. Gecko uses autonomous robots to perform inspections, and in March it secured a five-year contract of up to $71 million from the US Navy to assess and help maintain select military assets. The new announcement did not disclose the dollar amount of the investment, but the facility will be up and operational in a matter of weeks, a spokesperson for the company told TribLive. Software defense firm Govini plans $450 million expansion. Air, the software defense firm formerly known as Govini, announced a 10-year, $450 million expansion of its Pittsburgh office, which is expected to add 40 jobs, according to the company. The company's flagship product, Ark, works to accelerate the defense acquisition process. Founded in 2011, the Virginia-based company has secured millions in defense contracts and became a unicorn last year after securing a $150 million growth investment from Bain Capital. Last year, Air removed Pittsburgh-based founder and executive board chair Eric Gillespie from its board after he was charged with unlawful contact with a minor. $14M+ for aerospace, defense and automotive testing facility. Acutronic Group, a company with its US base on Waterfront Drive, pledged to invest $14 million to $30 million for a new Pittsburgh facility. The Swiss company builds the heavy-duty machinery used to stress-test aerospace, defense, and auto tech in motion. Its new facility would be the largest in the world built specifically for this kind of testing. The investment would add about 100 jobs, doubling Acutronic's PA workforce over the next five years, according to the company. Astrobotic finalizes $300M acquisition. Denver-based company Voyager Technologies completed its acquisition of local aerospace company Astrobotic, rebranding it to Voyager Lunar Systems, for about $300 million. Voyager plans to retain approximately 150 jobs in Pittsburgh, according to the announcement. Astrobotic secured $298 million of NASA contracts right before the acquisition. Classified facility coming to hazelwood green. Local organizations, the federal government and the state are teaming up to build a $10 million facility so local tech companies can securely work with the government. The 11,000-square-foot multi-level security facility at the Regional Industrial Development Corporation's (RIDC) Mill 19 will include a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility - a secure room for discussing, processing and storing classified information. The facility will be funded by the RIDC, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the DoW's Defense Innovation Unit. More than a dozen companies and organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania have committed to being tenants or users of the facility. Some of the companies announced at the summit include Aalyria Technologies, a Google spinout focused on space communications, and Voicd, a CMU-developed voice intelligence platform that detects deepfakes. CMU, Carnegie Foundry launch drone manufacturing platform. CMU, local venture studio Carnegie Foundry and US drone manufacturers announced a new initiative to help American companies rapidly scale production of drones and other autonomous systems. CMU is putting $50 million of existing resources from its National Robotics Engineering Center into a new platform - the Autonomous Systems Manufacturing Platform (ASMP) - so that drone companies don't have to build these capabilities from scratch. The platform includes AI-enabled robotics, manufacturing automation, digital engineering, inspection and testing capabilities. Two drone companies already supplying the DoW, ViDARR and Envision Technology, will be the first to use ASMP. Millions more in military, business and academia partnerships. * The PA Chamber and Keystone Space Collaborative are forming a strategic affiliation to grow Pennsylvania's space economy through the formation of a Tri-State Space Council. The council will partner with the Ohio and West Virginia Chambers of Commerce to advance workforce development, federal funding opportunities and other initiatives. * CMU's Learnvia - a nonprofit learning collaborative offering AI-enabled courseware - will expand to military colleges. * Blade Diagnostics, a Squirrel Hill-based company that develops tech for aircraft engines, announced the US Air Force will expand its SmartBlend engine sustainment platform across the entire F-35 fleet. * North Shore cybersecurity company Qintel touted its $84 million multi-year contract to provide services to the US Cyber Command, which it originally announced in June. * Open-source AI firm Reflection AI entered agreements with the Department of Energy and the Pentagon to serve as an open-model AI provider, building on news first made public back in May. * The Army selected Carnegie Robotics for Phase III of its GEARS/ATV-S autonomous ground logistics program. The groups first announced the partnership in April.

Pentagon to invest $10B in defense industry. * DOW will invest about $10 billion in materiel production * More than 30 announcements span three investment categories * Attend the Potomac Officers Club's DOW summits this summer Attend the Potomac Officers Club's two DOW summits this summer, spotlighting many of the same defense industrial base and emerging technology priorities highlighted at the Pennsylvania summit. Sign up now for the 2026 Air and Space Summit on July 30 to hear discussions on artificial intelligence, Golden Dome, commercial space relay and other defense technology priorities. You can also reserve your spot today for the 2026 Navy Summit on Aug. 27 to explore digital engineering, AI, autonomous systems and next-generation capabilities. DOW said Thursday President Donald Trump made the announcement during his keynote address on Wednesday at the inaugural Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, a two-day event held at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. "With today's announcement, Pennsylvania will play a key role in building the arsenal of freedom to defend our nation in the modern world," the president said. More than 30 investment announcements came out of the summit, spanning munitions, shipbuilding, space, artificial intelligence and robotics. What did DOW secretary Hegseth say about the DIB? Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a two-time Wash100 awardee, joined Trump at the summit and praised the event for bringing together innovators, prime contractors, private equity investors, labor leaders and defense officials. Hegseth said the investment marks the largest warfighting capability buildup since former President Ronald Reagan's defense expansion in the 1980s. He noted that the investment will change the battlefield and keep Americans safe. "There's never been a moment like this where the aperture has opened up inside the [War Department] for defense and [for] the second word: innovation," he said at the event. In January, Hegseth launched a multiweek Arsenal of Freedom tour to engage with the defense industrial base nationwide. What are the summit's key defense industry announcements? Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., said the event generated more than $10 billion in new investment supporting nearly 5,000 Pennsylvania jobs. The announcements fall into three categories: defense industrial base; emerging technology; and research and development and workforce. Strengthening the defense industrial base. * Acutronic Group - $14 million-$30 million investment in a new facility for rate tables and simulators, doubling its workforce in five years * Advanced Cooling Technologies - New 50,000-square-foot cold plate facility for satellites and AI data centers, adding up to 100 jobs * Air, formerly Govini - 10-year, $450 million expansion of its Pittsburgh office, adding 40 jobs * Attalon - New 80,000-square-foot Philadelphia headquarters quadrupling U.S. precision coatings production for guided munitions, a $30 million-plus investment creating 100 jobs * Day & Zimmermann - $2.3 billion contract for operations, maintenance and modernization at the Hawthorne Army Depot * EOS - Strategic partnership with DOW and a Golden Dome for America contract to integrate long-duration energy storage * Firepoint Energy - Pilot facility converting waste coal into synthetic jet fuel and critical minerals, a $170 million-$2 billion investment creating 50 jobs * Hanwha Group / Hanwha Philadelphia Shipyard - New National Security Multi-Mission Vessel orders through MARAD, valued at $1.5 billion and supporting over 2,000 jobs * JPMorganChase - Nearly $25 million in loans and grants to strengthen Philadelphia's shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing sector * JWF Industries - More than $500 million in anticipated defense manufacturing contracts alongside a facility expansion creating approximately 200 jobs * Karman Space & Defense - $2.7 million expansion to test and qualify materials for the Navy surface fleet, creating about 20 new jobs * Kratos Defense - New 167,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility, its third in Pennsylvania, supporting 440-plus employees statewide * Lockheed Martin - $60 million-plus investment to expand its Archbald facility, creating approximately 700 new jobs * Mack Defense - Additional Army order for 115 heavy dump trucks, bringing 2026 orders to 208 trucks worth more than $84 million * Qintel - $84 million multi-year contract with U.S. Cyber Command, adding to existing federal agency work * Rhoads Industries & General Dynamics Electric Boat - 10-year, $2.5 billion agreement for submarine manufacturing at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, supporting 1,350 jobs through 2035 * Sphere Brake Defense - $4.5 million Marine Corps contract for Amphibious Combat Vehicle brake kit production * U.S. Metal Powders / AMPAL - Fourth production line expanding aluminum powder capacity to 52 million pounds annually, a $10 million investment creating 15 jobs Fielding emerging Technology - AI, Autonomy & space. * Aalyria Technologies - Signed on to use a new DIU-funded Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, growing its local CMU and Pitt talent team * Blade Diagnostics - U.S. Air Force expanding its SmartBlend engine sustainment platform across the entire F-35 fleet, with projected savings of $1 billion-$2 billion * Carnegie Robotics - Selected for Phase III of the Army's GEARS/ATV-S autonomous ground logistics program, a future opportunity worth up to $400 million * Deepwave Digital - Deploying RF AI systems in flight testing with the Air Force and Air National Guard, valued at $30 million-$70 million * Parallax Advanced Research & RIDC - Building a new $10 million DIU-funded SCIF enabling classified defense collaboration among government, industry and academia * Re:Build Manufacturing - Launched U.S.-assembled drone battery packs as part of an $81 million investment, expected to create up to 300 jobs * Reflection - Entered agreements to serve as an open-model AI provider to the Department of Energy and the Pentagon * Voicd - CMU-developed deepfake detection platform already adopted by the U.S. Secret Service and Senate * Voyager Technologies & Astrobotic - Completed a $300 million acquisition of Astrobotic alongside a $297 million NASA lunar delivery order Building the R&D and workforce pipeline. * Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Foundry, ViDARR & Envision Technology - Launched the Autonomous Systems Manufacturing Platform, backed by more than $50 million in CMU investment * Keystone Space Collaborative - Announced as Pennsylvania's dedicated statewide space industry organization alongside a new Tri-State Space Compact * Lackawanna College - $20 million skilled-trades and technology expansion, including a new Center for Technology and Innovation * Penn State - New 10-year Army support agreement, a five-year nuclear research partnership with Westinghouse, and a new gas turbine testing laboratory * Penn State National Security Institute - Gary Brito, a retired U.S. Army general, named inaugural chair of the NSI Strategic Advisory Council * Pennsylvania College of Technology & BAE Systems - BAE renewed its support for Penn College's welding programs with a $10,000 grant, supporting more than 360 students * QE Manufacturing & Bucknell University - $70,000 grant funding a 15-month collaboration studying AI-powered automation in precision manufacturing * Southwest Pennsylvania Defense Ecosystem - New government-industry-academia coalition spanning 10 Southwest Pennsylvania counties * Trivedi Institute, University of Pittsburgh - New Institute for Space and Global Biomedicine, with six jobs planned in year one * U.S. Army AI2C & FUZE - Hosted the Robotics, AI and Autonomy Forum at CMU's Robotics Innovation Center, drawing 350-plus attendees * University of Pittsburgh - Launched the MACAM consortium spanning 13 Department of War medical research labs to advance autonomous battlefield medicine * Voyager Technologies & Geisinger Health - MOU making Geisinger Health the first biopharma tenant of Voyager's VISTA platform, enabling microgravity drug research * Voyager Technologies & Penn State - MOU establishing a Penn State presence in the VISTA science park for microgravity research