Raise US secures new corporate funding to expand AI workforce transition efforts

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Raise US secures AI funding

Highlights

Raise US secured over $200 million in new funding from Apple, AT&T, the Bezos family, Google, and Walmart to expand workforce transition initiatives.
The organization, co-founded by Gina Raimondo, will use the funds to broaden apprenticeship, retraining, and worker redeployment programs in response to AI disruptions.
Raise US Policy Lab will test workforce support models and provide actionable recommendations to policymakers and private sector leaders, aiming for national adoption.

Funding expansion and program plans

As first reported by Axios, Raise US says new funding from Apple, AT&T, the Bezos family, Google and Walmart increases total commitments by more than $200 million from its initial announcement. The nonpartisan group, cofounded by former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, says the added support will help it broaden training, retraining and worker redeployment efforts across the country.

Raise US launched in June with Raimondo and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb seeking $1 billion in multiyear commitments. The organization says it is not disclosing individual donation amounts, but plans to work with states and employers to expand apprenticeship and early-career training programs, retrain mid-career workers and strengthen support for workers whose jobs are affected by AI.

The group also says its Raise US Policy Lab will test ideas for supporting and redeploying workers, then turn those findings into recommendations for policymakers in Washington, state capitals and the private sector. More than 50 leaders from technology, organized labor, higher education and government gathered at Brown University on Monday as the initiative builds its coalition.

Corporate and policy implications

The new backing highlights how large U.S. companies are trying to respond early to the economic and political strain that AI-driven workplace change could create. Rather than focusing only on internal adoption of AI tools, the initiative is positioning workforce preparation and social protections as part of the broader business response.

Raimondo says action from Washington is not keeping pace with public concern about AI's effect on jobs and household finances. She argues the group's cross-sector structure, bringing together business, labor, nonprofits, universities and bipartisan governors, is intended to identify workable models and scale them nationally.

Corporate supporters frame the effort as both a skills and competitiveness issue. AT&T Chairman and CEO John Stankey says the AI economy will require new skills and create new opportunities, while Alphabet and Google President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat says public-private cooperation is needed to spread AI's benefits more broadly; Walmart Foundation President Julie Gehrki says companies that succeed with AI will be those that bring their workers along.

In our earlier article on a KPMG U.S. CEO survey about AI agents, we noted that many large companies are already seeing efficiency and growth benefits, even as few leaders call the technology truly transformational so far. The survey also found CEOs broadly expect headcount growth alongside continued spending on AI infrastructure, with retraining and shifting skill needs becoming central as organizations prepare for deeper human-AI collaboration.

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