$500M RAISE US AI Jobs Push Gets Bipartisan

What Is RAISE US?

At iCharles, we track AI's impact on workers closely — and this launch is one of the largest private responses yet.

RAISE US is a bipartisan nonprofit that launched Thursday with $500 million. Its goal is to help American workers adapt to artificial intelligence. Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb are leading it. They raised the funds from AI companies, major corporations, and philanthropies, per Politico.

The group plans to spend that $500 million over three to four years. Its long-term fundraising target is $1 billion total. Holcomb was direct about the scale: "A billion dollars wouldn't be enough to affect the need that is out there. That just shows you how big the issue is."

Who Is Funding RAISE US?

Corporate donors include major names in tech and finance. Here is the confirmed list:

• Anthropic
• OpenAI (via its Foundation)
• Amazon
• Microsoft
• IBM
• Bank of America
• General Motors
• Eli Lilly

State governments, educators, and philanthropists are also taking part, as Axios reported. Notably, Anthropic and OpenAI are rival AI labs. They are funding the same effort — one aimed at fixing job disruption their own technology could cause. Questions about Microsoft AI reviews and workforce obligations are part of the same broader debate.

Which Governors Are Involved?

RAISE US has partnered with four governors across party lines:

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Raimondo said the governor strategy is deliberate. "Part of the reason we're working with governors is because they can move faster," she told Politico.

Who Is on the Advisory Board?

The advisory board spans labor, business, and politics:

• Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO
• Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone
• Laurene Powell Jobs, Silicon Valley philanthropist
• Penny Pritzker, former Commerce Secretary
• Paul Ryan, former House Speaker

Former Deloitte executive Janet Foutty is joining as president of corporate partnerships.

What Programs Will RAISE US Run?

In its first year, RAISE US will test pilots in four states. Those pilots include:

• Expanding "service year" roles for young people in healthcare and education
• Updating unemployment insurance to help laid-off workers start businesses using AI
• Wage insurance programs
• Incentives for companies to retrain workers instead of laying them off
• AI-powered career coaching
• Short-term credential programs

Pilots will be funded jointly by RAISE US and the participating states. The group is also building an internal policy lab. That lab will not take corporate money. It will explore additional solutions on its own.

Why Are AI Companies Paying for This?

Raimondo has been direct about the stakes. She told Politico: "There's increasing awareness that it would be bad for America to quickly get to a place where we have a very high unemployment rate." She said CEOs are asking, "Will there be rioting in the streets? Will there be massive disruption?"

This launch follows an op-ed in which Raimondo said an AI economy crisis is coming and "there's no obvious solution," per Axios. The concern connects directly to the OpenAI Codex agentic work trend, which has sharpened anxiety about white-collar job displacement.

Earlier in 2026, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei walked back earlier predictions. Both had said AI would quickly wipe out large numbers of white-collar jobs. They pulled back from those claims ahead of anticipated IPOs, per Politico.

What Will RAISE US Stay Out Of?

The group is not entering the debate over profit-sharing. That debate includes proposals for taxes on AI company profits, public wealth funds, government stakes in AI firms, and annual cash payouts. Those ideas have drawn support from figures as different as Sen. Bernie Sanders and OpenAI.

"We're not going to be deeply engaged in the debate around a federal tax overhaul," Raimondo said. She added that Congress should find ways to spread AI's gains. But she said: "I personally don't love the idea of the government owning big stakes in companies. It lends itself to corruption. It's frankly the definition of socialism."

How Does This Fit the Bigger Picture?

Other tech companies have launched similar workforce efforts. Most focus on blue-collar work and data center construction, per Axios. RAISE US is different — it targets the broader labor market shift that AI could trigger across many industries.

This also connects to wider questions about AI model oversight as capabilities grow. The AI labor market concern is no longer just a talking point. It now has $500 million behind it.

RAISE US plans to expand to more states in the coming months as it continues fundraising toward its $1 billion target.