Key Takeaways:
Gina Raimondo and Eric Holcomb launched RAISE US on June 25, a nonpartisan nonprofit that has secured more than $500 million toward a $1 billion goal to help American workers retrain for the AI economy.
Anchor partners include Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, and the OpenAI Foundation, with Bank of America and more than two dozen companies and philanthropies backing the effort.
RAISE US is starting with pilots in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah, a bipartisan mix of states, with more expected to join.
Gina Raimondo, the former U.S. Commerce Secretary, and Eric Holcomb, the former Indiana governor, launched RAISE US on June 25, a nonpartisan national nonprofit built to help American workers train for and move through the disruption that artificial intelligence is bringing to their jobs. The group says it has already secured more than $500 million toward a $1 billion target, money that is private and philanthropic rather than federal.
The backer list is unusual for crossing lines that rarely meet. Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, and the OpenAI Foundation signed on as anchor partners, the first time the companies building AI have joined an independent effort to fund worker transition, and Bank of America is sponsoring an advanced manufacturing apprenticeship program. More than two dozen companies and philanthropies are involved, from General Motors and IBM to Eli Lilly and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Raimondo, who will serve as chief executive, put the stakes plainly. She warned that building the best AI systems in the world while leaving millions of Americans behind would mean the country had "automated our own decline."
RAISE US plans to design and test programs with states, employers, and training providers, then scale the ones that work. It is starting with pilots in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah, a deliberately bipartisan group of governors, with more states expected to join. The need is wide. Cognizant's chief executive noted that more than 90 percent of U.S. jobs are already exposed to AI in some form.
The launch lands in a week when technology money keeps pointing at public problems. WYDE recently covered Anthropic's Claude Corps, which pays fellows to work inside nonprofits, and the same automation pressure shows up in tools like Taktile, which raised $110 million to let AI handle the bank underwriting and fraud checks people used to do. RAISE US is betting the firms automating the work will also help fund the landing. Worth watching whether $1 billion and four states can build something that scales.
People Also Ask
What is RAISE US?
RAISE US is a nonpartisan national nonprofit launched June 25, 2026 by Gina Raimondo and Eric Holcomb to help American workers train for and transition through the changes AI is bringing to the job market.
Who is funding RAISE US?
It has secured more than $500 million toward a $1 billion goal from private and philanthropic sources, with Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, the OpenAI Foundation, and Bank of America among more than two dozen backers.
Which states are part of RAISE US?
The group is launching pilots in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah, a deliberately bipartisan group of states, with more expected to join in the months ahead.
Is RAISE US a government program?
No. RAISE US is an independent nonprofit funded by private and philanthropic capital, though it partners with state governments to run and measure its workforce pilots.
Sources: The Rockefeller Foundation, Fortune