On June 25, 2026, a coalition of the world’s most powerful technology companies joined two prominent former government officials to launch RAISE US, a nonpartisan nonprofit with a stated goal of deploying $1 billion toward AI workforce retraining programs across the United States. The announcement arrives at a moment when AI-attributed job displacement has accelerated sharply: a TechTimes analysis published June 30 puts the 2026 US figure at 87,714 displaced roles. RAISE US represents the most coordinated effort yet by AI companies to take direct responsibility for the transition their technology is creating in the labor market.
What Was Announced
RAISE US was co-founded by Gina Raimondo, who served as US Commerce Secretary from 2021 to 2025, and Eric Holcomb, the former Governor of Indiana. The organization launched on June 25 with more than $500 million already secured, against a $1 billion fundraising target. Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI are confirmed as anchor funders.
The nonprofit’s model is deliberately structured around state partnerships rather than federal programs, a design choice that Raimondo described as intentional given the current political climate. Initial pilot partnerships have been established with governors in Utah, Arkansas, Maryland, and Connecticut. The selection of those four states reflects a bipartisan approach, including both Republican-led and Democratic-led administrations at the state level.
The advisory board assembled for RAISE US spans an unusually wide range of perspectives. It includes economists David Autor of MIT and Erik Brynjolfsson of Stanford, both of whom have produced influential research on automation and labor market outcomes. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler represents the organized labor perspective. Former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and investment manager Stephen Schwarzman round out a coalition that spans ideological and industry lines.
According to Axios and Fortune reporting on the launch, the initiative will fund new forms of education and job transition training with a focus on hands-on workforce programs rather than traditional degree pathways. Specific program categories include employer-led apprenticeships, community college partnerships, and AI-assisted skills credentialing systems.
Technical Details
RAISE US programs will center on what organizers describe as skills-first credentialing, a model in which workers demonstrate competencies directly rather than completing fixed degree curricula. Employers participating in the program will define skill requirements in partnership with state workforce agencies, and training providers will develop modules to meet those specifications. AI-assisted assessment tools will be used to evaluate and verify worker progress.
The initiative will not build its own training infrastructure from scratch. Instead, it will work as a funding and coordination layer, directing capital to existing community colleges, vocational programs, and employer training divisions in each partner state. Each state is expected to develop its own implementation plan within RAISE US’s credentialing and accountability framework.
Technology anchors including Amazon and Microsoft are expected to provide cloud learning platforms and AI-powered curriculum tools to training providers at reduced cost. Anthropic and OpenAI are expected to contribute access to AI educational assistants for enrolled workers. The specific technical integrations had not been fully detailed as of the launch date.
Industry Impact and Reactions
The RAISE US launch comes in the context of rapidly mounting pressure on AI companies to address the workforce consequences of the technology they are deploying. The figure of 87,714 US job cuts attributed to AI in 2026, cited by TechTimes, reflects a visible acceleration from prior years. Sectors most affected include software development, customer support, document processing, and certain categories of financial analysis.
The participation of the AFL-CIO through advisory board member Liz Shuler is notable. Organized labor has historically viewed AI-funded workforce initiatives with skepticism, particularly when structured in ways that could help employers avoid collective bargaining obligations during workforce transitions. The AFL-CIO’s involvement does not constitute a formal endorsement of RAISE US, but signals a willingness to engage with the initiative.
Microsoft’s participation is significant given that the company has simultaneously been reducing headcount in some divisions while expanding AI capabilities across its product lines. Amazon, which has also accelerated automation across its logistics and fulfillment operations, brings the scale of its AWS training infrastructure and its own track record of workforce transition programs. Anthropic and OpenAI, as frontier model developers, contribute both technology access and reputational stakes in seeing the initiative succeed.
What Comes Next
RAISE US has outlined a phased expansion plan. The four initial pilot states are expected to launch their first programs in the third quarter of 2026, with enrollment beginning in fall. If the pilot produces measurable outcomes within 12 months, the organization plans to expand to at least 15 states by the end of 2027. The $1 billion fundraising target is expected to be reached by mid-2027 if additional major technology companies and institutional investors join as funders.
The initiative will face pressure to demonstrate concrete outcomes at a pace that keeps up with ongoing displacement. Industry analysts tracking the workforce effects of AI note that retraining programs historically take 18 to 36 months to produce reliable employment outcomes, while AI-driven job changes are occurring on a much shorter cycle. The credibility of RAISE US will depend significantly on whether its programs can close that gap.
Conclusion
RAISE US represents an acknowledgment by the major AI companies that the benefits and disruptions of artificial intelligence are not evenly distributed, and that direct investment in workforce transition is both an ethical obligation and a practical necessity for sustaining public support for AI development. With $500 million already secured, a bipartisan leadership team, and partnerships spanning four states, the initiative has the structural foundation to make a meaningful impact. Whether it scales quickly enough to matter for the workers already navigating this transition will be the defining question of the months ahead.
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