Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft, and the OpenAI Foundation are among the founding backers of RAISE US, a nonprofit that launched June 25 with more than $500 million secured toward a $1 billion goal — aimed at retraining American workers as artificial intelligence reshapes the labor market.
What it is
RAISE US is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit co-chaired by Gina Raimondo, the former US Secretary of Commerce, and Eric Holcomb, the former governor of Indiana. The bipartisan leadership is intentional: Raimondo is a Democrat who served under President Biden; Holcomb is a Republican. More than 25 founding organizations have committed to the effort, including Bank of America, IBM, General Motors, Mastercard, Deloitte, Blackstone, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
How it works
Initial pilots will run in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah, with additional states expected to follow. Working with state governments and employers, RAISE US will test a range of approaches: wage insurance for workers accepting lower-paying positions while retraining, AI-powered career navigation platforms, corporate incentives to redeploy rather than lay off workers, and short-term credential programs tied to employer demand. High school graduates will have access to “service year” placements in shortage fields such as healthcare.
A separate policy lab will research AI’s effects on the labor market and issue recommendations, funded independently of the corporate sponsors to preserve its neutrality.
The reasoning
Raimondo framed the initiative as the domestic counterpart to the federal AI competitiveness work she led as Commerce Secretary. “If we build the best AI systems in the world and leave millions of Americans behind, we won’t have won anything,” she said at the June 25 launch.
RAISE US plans to work through existing institutions — community colleges, apprenticeship programs, and state employment agencies — rather than build from scratch, using its funding to scale what already works.