Pittsburgh's burgeoning AI hardware manufacturer eyes expansion to Bakery Square
Hellbender is the first AI hardware manufacturer in Pittsburgh. It's part of the growing interest in AI expanding in our city, and now, the business is planning to expand to Bakery Square.
When you think of high-tech industries, you don't necessarily think of manufacturing, but at Hellbender, they're all about it.
"We make on-edge, AI devices," said Brian Beyer, the founder of Hellbender Inc.
It's like making a mini smartphone for specific commercial or industrial uses, like bike or soccer cameras.
It digitally pans, tilts, and zooms, follows the action, and automatically creates highlight reels for each player," Beyer described.
The circuit boards, made at Hellbender's Harmar facility, hold the chips for artificial intelligence.
"That's the fastest growing portion of our company," Beyer said.
He said these circuit boards mean AI is not used through the cloud, but on the device you use, saving businesses money.
"It's a great place to be right now, and it's a great opportunity to build skilled labor around artificial intelligence that can impact every sort of skill set within our community," said Beyer.
Beyer said the growth has allowed the company to offer jobs that start at $25 per hour.
"We can pay a higher wage because we're using a mix of manual assembly and co-botic work cells to reduce our labor costs," he added.
That means robots handle repetitive tasks, like turning a screwdriver and quality control, while people are still part of the manufacturing process.
"I expect by the end of the year, we'll be over 130 [employees]," Beyer said of the company's rapid growth, which will increase the amount of product Hellbender ships.
"That's one of the reasons why we're adding a factory in Bakery Square."
They have outpaced their own capacity, showing it's a future full of AI growing opportunities in Pittsburgh.
Hellbender's expansion to Bakery Square is expected this fall.
