AI for Economic Opportunity Fund
Catalyzing $1 billion in new income through advanced technologies.
While AI-enabled tools and technologies continue to rapidly evolve, organizations focused on social outcomes are often last in line to test and implement them — the GitLab Foundation’s AI for Economic Opportunity Fund enables frontline organizations to experiment with emerging technologies to improve productivity gains.
In a continuation of the Gitlab Foundation’s forward-thinking work, we have made a $10 million global commitment over three years to accelerate how emerging technological advances can create economic opportunity and income growth. Building on the success of our inaugural year, the GitLab Foundation is thrilled to announce the continuation and expansion of the AI for Economic Opportunity Fund with a second round of funding focused on demonstration and scaling. This initiative represents a partnership between the GitLab Foundation, Ballmer Group, and OpenAI, demonstrating our collective commitment to leveraging emerging AI technologies to create economic opportunity and drive income growth. This commitment will drive $1 billion in new income for people earning below a living wage through the responsible use of technology such as AI, advanced data science, and cloud computing.
Our Commitment
In this second year, the AI for Economic Opportunity Demonstration and Scaling Fund has evolved into a two-phase initiative:
In the first phase, the GitLab Foundation will grant a minimum of $3.5 million to up to 14 demonstration projects. These projects will be focused on developing and deploying prototype tools, gathering user feedback, and building evidence of outcomes.
In the second phase, Ballmer Group will provide funding to scale high-potential projects, awarding either 1-year or 2-year grants ranging from $500K to $1.5M per year to a maximum of six selected grantees from the demonstration phase.
OpenAI will continue to provide both financial and technical support to grantees, including additional funding, access to early product releases, credits, and technical advice. Additional funders are encouraged to participate in helping source, review, and support these high-potential projects. We expect total awards over the lifecycle of this funding round to exceed $10 million.
The GitLab Foundation improves people’s lifetime earnings through access to opportunities. We estimate and track the impact of every investment we make and focus on our 100x North Star ROI. We continuously measure our expected impact. View our interactive dashboard for detailed data and updates.
mRelief, a GitLab Foundation AI grantee, has unlocked $1.4 billion in SNAP benefits for more than 4 million individuals. Its tech-enabled SNAP eligibility screener takes just over two minutes to complete and its simplified online application takes about 13 minutes — compared to the standard application process which requires a 17-page application or 90-minute phone call and as many as 10 required documents.
“With this AI project, we’re hoping to get an additional 100,000 individuals approved for SNAP within one year of launching the document screener, which would unlock $138 million in benefits for people in need.”-mRelief CTO Dize Hacioglu
The projected ROI for this grant is $1,007 of increased earnings for every dollar we invest.
We invite you to join our AI for Economic Opportunity Fund by co-investing with us to catalyze living wage jobs! For more info, contact Eric Talbert eric@gitlabfoundation.org.
