On June 25, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and former Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb jointly launchedRAISE US—A nonpartisan national nonprofit organization, Target RaisingUS$1 billionHelping American workers transition to an AI economy. Get it on startupover $500 millionCommitment, Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft and the OpenAI Foundation join as core enterprise partners. This is the first time that Silicon Valley AI giants have joined forces to directly invest in addressing the anxiety of "AI replacing human jobs."
How exactly will the US$500 million be spent?
RAISE US funding will be used in several directions: reskilling pilot projects, apprenticeship programs, AI-driven career navigation platforms (such as Arkansas’ LAUNCH system), and training courses directly linked to employer needs – rather than the traditional “get a certificate” model. The first partner states include Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland and Utah, which have bipartisan support from governors.
Other founding participants include Bank of America, IBM, Cisco, Autodesk, General Motors, Eli Lilly and Company, and the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation. It is worth noting that Liz Shuler, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), will join the board of directors - a sign that the union has chosen a strategy of "participation" rather than "boycott".
"We have a technology strategy, but we don't have a people strategy."
Raimondo’s statement hit home:"The United States has a technology strategy to lead the global AI competition, but it does not yet have a human strategy - without people, we cannot lead."She also made it clear that she does not support the Universal Basic Income (UBI) plan.
Sam Altman's statement was more cautious: "Helping people survive the economic changes that AI may bring is one of the most important things that needs to be seriously considered from now on." But a structural paradox is: the companies that fund retraining are the AI technology developers that create "training needs."
Behind the data: AI is eating up jobs
The launch of RAISE US coincides with a troubling set of data. Anthropic’s June Economic Index Survey (approximately 9,700 users) found that more than35% expect AI to perform most or almost all work tasks within 12 months, about 60% of people chose a higher proportion of AI task replacement than the current one. Metaintro’s analysis points out that in 2026 AI has already led to88,000 U.S. jobs cut, more than all previous years combined. The chief economist of the IMF warned that the impact of AI will particularly hit entry-level jobs.
But history is not optimistic. A study of 23 million federal workforce program participants found that retraining rarely actually moves workers to jobs with lower risks of automation. Raimondo himself admitted that "past efforts were ineffective."
What does it mean for China?
RAISE US's model deserves attention. It ties training directly to employer needs (rather than abstract skill certificates), uses AI tools themselves for career navigation, and puts policy research in the hands of independent foundations (rather than funding companies) to maintain the independence of advice. For the Chinese market, which is also facing the impact of AI employment, these design ideas have reference value. AI replacement isn’t distant thunder—it’s already raining.
Summarize
The scale of US$500 million may be just a drop in the bucket relative to the employment impact caused by AI, but RAISE US at least acknowledges one fact: the AI industry cannot just be responsible for creating disruption without bearing the consequences. When the companies that build AI begin to pay for the people replaced by AI, this may be the beginning of a new era.
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