Former US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb have launched "Raise Us," a bipartisan nonprofit backed by more than two dozen major corporations and four governors.
The organization aims to raise $1 billion to prepare American workers for an AI-driven economy. Raimondo will serve as CEO. For perspective, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta plan to spend a combined $725 billion on AI this year alone.
"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 at the launch. "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."
The organization plans to create new corporate incentives for retraining and retention, launch pilot programs with governors, and adapt training models to match shifting employer needs. Success will be measured by whether workers land and keep stable, well-paying jobs.
AI rivals jointly fund a workforce initiative for the first time
