The Baltimore area was chosen Monday as one of 31 federal tech hubs, providing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to make the region part of a national effort to advance America’s tech industry through competitive grants.

The Baltimore tech hub will focus on the combination of artificial intelligence and biotechnology — what’s been dubbed “predictive healthcare” — to use artificial intelligence on health data to improve outcomes, clinical decision-making and produce new therapies and drugs. The Baltimore region effort is now eligible for nearly $500 million in federal funds over five years that the Greater Baltimore Committee estimates will generate $3.2 billion in economic impact and 52,000 jobs by 2030.

The tech hubs, authorized by the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, will be located across 32 states and Puerto Rico — in both urban and rural regions, according to the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

Read the full story from the Baltimore Banner.