OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon and Microsoft are bankrolling a new nonprofit to retrain American workers for the AI economy. RAISE US, led by Gina Raimondo, has already raised more than $500m.
The biggest names in AI agree on at least one thing. The technology they are building could upend the American job market, and almost nobody is ready. So they are writing cheques. Gina Raimondo, the former US commerce secretary, and Eric Holcomb, the former governor of Indiana, have launched RAISE US. The nonpartisan nonprofit will work with governors and employers to help workers through the disruption.
The group has secured more than $500m so far. The target is $1bn in multi-year commitments. It launches with more than two dozen of America’s largest companies and philanthropies behind it. Raimondo will serve as chief executive.
Its anchor backers are striking. OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and Amazon are fierce rivals, racing to build the most powerful models. All four have signed on. So have Bank of America, IBM, Mastercard, AMD, Eli Lilly and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others.
“America has a technology strategy for leading the global AI competition. It does not yet have a people strategy, and we cannot lead without one,” Raimondo said. “If we build the best AI systems in the world and leave millions of Americans behind, we won’t have won anything. We’ll have automated our own decline.”
