$500 Million Ai Jobs Push Launches With Bipartisan Backing

A bipartisan group launched Thursday with $500 million in funding from tech and other interests to help American workers adapt to artificial intelligence — marking one of the largest private efforts yet to address growing public anxiety about the technology's potential to trigger widespread job losses.

The effort is led by two former governors, Democrat Gina Raimondo and Republican Eric Holcomb, who raised the funds from AI companies, major corporations and philanthropies. To begin, the money will seed pilot programs in a handful of states aimed at easing the economic transition for workers disaffected by the AI boom.

“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. Employers, CEOs I talk to fully understand that we are living in a time of divisive politics,” Raimondo, who was governor of Rhode Island before serving as commerce secretary under Joe Biden, told POLITICO. “You do hear … ‘Will there be rioting in the streets? Will there be massive disruption?’”

Named RAISE US, the nonprofit will work with corporate donors including Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon, Microsoft, Bank of America, General Motors and pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly to design and implement programs to retrain workers for new roles, as a way to deter layoffs.

The group has so far partnered with some unlikely bedfellows, like Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a rising Democratic Party star, and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a close ally to President Donald Trump who boasts credibility in the MAGA movement. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) are also on board, showing the project has broad political appeal.

In its first year, it will test ideas such as expanding "service year" opportunities for young people in healthcare or education and updating unemployment insurance programs to help laid-off workers start businesses with AI. The pilots will be funded with money from RAISE US and the participating states.

The organization’s board of directors includes Liz Shuler, president of labor powerhouse AFL-CIO, which has been pressuring state governors and 2028 presidential contenders to more aggressively counter AI’s impact on workers; Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman; Silicon Valley philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs; former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker; and former House Speaker Paul Ryan, among other heavyweights. Former Deloitte executive Janet Foutty is joining as president of corporate partnerships.

The former governors argue that key U.S. institutions and programs need to be overhauled for a workforce facing rapid technological change. The country’s schools are failing to produce enough workers with the skills employers demand, and unemployment insurance was not designed for an economy where people may need to switch careers repeatedly, Raimondo and Holcomb say.

They insist their group won’t be another job-training push, which many individual companies have already rolled out.

Most top CEOs are convinced AI will be transformative, but they are less certain about how fast the change will come. This year, ahead of anticipated IPOs, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei walked back earlier predictions that AI would quickly wipe out large numbers of white-collar jobs.

“Part of the reason we’re working with governors is because they can move faster,” Raimondo said. “If there is a period of concentrated job loss, I do expect the federal government will have to intervene, and my greatest hope at that time, however many years away that is, is that when they do that, they'll look to our work.”

RAISE US plans to spend its $500 million over the next three to four years while continuing to fundraise with a target of $1 billion in total donations. Holcomb predicted the goal may not be sufficient as the nonprofit expands to more states over the coming months.

“We can scale up as well over time, but I’ll just be frank, a billion dollars wouldn’t be enough to affect the need that is out there,” the former Indiana governor said in an interview. “That just shows you how big the issue is.”

The group is standing up an internal policy lab, which won’t take corporate money, to explore other solutions.

But it doesn’t expect to shape the thorny debate over whether workers should directly share in AI gains through taxes on industry profits, public wealth funds, government stakes in leading companies or annual cash payouts. Versions of such proposals have drawn support from interests as disparate as Sen. Bernie Sanders, OpenAI and Trump.

“We’re not going to be deeply engaged in the debate around a federal tax overhaul,” said Raimondo, adding that Congress should figure out ways to spread the gains of AI. “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.”