PITTSBURGH — It is clear that Mark Cuban is happy to be home. His smile never leaves him the entire time here, from his fireside chat to judging a Shark Tank-style startup pitch competition that highlighted technological innovation in sports.
Yes, Dallas is his adoptive home — he has even recreated the Pittsburgh tradition of living within earshot of his siblings who have transplanted there — but Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is home.
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Cuban was here for festivities related to the NFL Draft week in his hometown. He was at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Innovation Center on Wednesday, as part of an event organized by the university and the AI Strike Team to soak up the leadership role that the city has taken in artificial intelligence and robotics.
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A leadership role that is the result of both innovators and researchers at CMU, an infrastructure already in place for AI and data power centers needed for the emerging industry, and the energy under the ground needed to supply it all.
And, of course, the workforce ethos that has defined the city from the boom days of manufacturing to the manufacturing and trade skills empowered for today.
Cuban, like many natives, watched the heartbreaking decline of the 1970s that led to half of the population moving across the country to find jobs. He’s happy to see the city find its footing and the potential to be a leader in today’s AI-infused industrial revolution. And he’s happy to see where the city finds itself now.
“Anything that helps Pittsburgh thrive and reimagine itself, I think, is awesome,” he said, adding, “During my lifetime, it’s gone through mostly decline, from smelling like rotten eggs to more people leaving than coming, to the UPMC resurgence, to it now being a Renaissance city in so many ways.”
Cuban said that the energy and potential here is limitless, whether it is medical technology or AI leading the way, or CMU, or the University of Pittsburgh, or Duquesne University.
Cuban praised local civic business leaders for putting their heads together and going after the NFL Draft. He noted that it will make the world rethink what they think Pittsburgh is.
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“Pittsburgh, like most cities, needs a brand identity to really benefit from people coming to the city, or a brand identity to give people a reason to come to the city,” he said. Cuban noted that Pittsburgh didn’t have a brand for the longest time, and when the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh summit took place, it sparked the story of Pittsburgh being something different.
“Once the steel mills closed, we were still the steel city, and we were losing people, not gaining people,” Cuban said. “Then we became a medical hub, a medical technology hub. And I think now, with CMU and Pitt, we’re becoming an AI hub. And I think that’s great.”
He added that when there are a lot of people coming in, a lot of eyeballs on the city, and what they see can completely contradict what they expected, and “that’s a huge win for the city,” he said.
Cuban said that, outside of the beauty and history of the city and the unique charm of its people, once people do their homework, they are going to find out how remarkably affordable it is to live here. This, he says, makes the city attractive to business owners who might want to relocate here.
He says that few other tech hubs in this country will have the low-cost structures that you can find here.
Cuban is known for his passionate support for the Dallas Mavericks, the NBA team that he sold his majority ownership of in 2023, although he still holds a 27% stake. He’s also known for a 13-year run on the show Shark Tank, where he used his entrepreneurial instincts to assess what the next big thing in small business will be.
His superpower has always been companies that come up with the best direct-to-consumer products while also operating efficiently.
Cuban was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon to a middle-class family. His father upholstered cars. Cuban knew how to hustle. He was known to find ways of buying things that most teenage boys want, like the latest pair of tennis shoes, or noting a need and fulfilling it. For example, when the local newspaper went on strike, Cuban drove to Cleveland to bring back newspapers and sell them.
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A serial entrepreneur, an attribute that he traces to his upbringing, his latest company is Cost Plus Drugs. It focuses on supplying common drugs at lower prices, and its founding is personal. Cuban has been a staunch supporter of disrupting the current complex system of healthcare delivery.
After the fireside chat on Wednesday at CMU, Cuban went full Shark Tank, with a startup pitch competition that highlighted technological innovation in sports. Other investors include former Pittsburgh Steeler turned venture capitalist Will Allen, Dick’s Sporting Goods Executive Chairman Ed Stack, Gecko Robotics co-founder Troy Demmer, UPMC Enterprises President Jeanne Cunicelli, and AWS Director and Global Head of Solutions Architect for Startups Daep Ubhil. All were locally based.
The event had several local startups that received commitments for seed investments and/or credits from Amazon Web Services. In fact, they were all so good and wildly inventive that no startup walked away without something from the Forge the Field Pitch AI.
CMU President Farnam Jahanian called the event, which included Gov. Josh Shapiro, a pivotal moment to showcase the city’s evolution.
Cuban said that the force and push of AI and robotics is this century’s industrial revolution. “If we’re able to win. Right now, we’re not the leader in robotics. However, you can argue that we are the leader in AI. If we’re able to use this investment in and around Pittsburgh to become a leader in robotic software, to become a leader in creating robots of all kinds, then you could see a renaissance of manufacturing; a true Pittsburgh-driven industrial revolution because of that,” he explained.
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“We’re not there yet. But I’m saying there’s a chance,” he added.
If you doubt that Cuban doesn’t still see himself as a kid from Pittsburgh, it’s worth noting how much he uses the word “we” when talking about the region.
