At the 2026 NGA Winter Meeting, Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google, joined Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt to discuss how artificial intelligence could help reignite the American Dream. Porat opened the session by sharing her family’s story, including her father’s journey as a Holocaust refugee who taught himself engineering while serving in World War II, immigrated to the United States, and went on to build a career at Stanford’s Linear Accelerator Center. His experience, she noted, exemplifies the opportunity America can offer when innovation and access align.
Porat acknowledged that AI presents real challenges, including concerns around energy affordability and job displacement. At the same time, she emphasized the technology’s transformative potential. She pointed to sobering educational statistics as evidence that new tools and approaches are urgently needed. Healthcare, particularly cancer treatment, served as a central example of AI’s promise. Advances in protein folding, early detection, and administrative efficiency, she argued, could help cure or better manage diseases that currently affect Americans disproportionately based on geography and income.
On workforce impacts, Porat addressed fears around automation directly. She noted that throughout history, technological change has eliminated some roles while augmenting others and creating entirely new categories of work. Preparing workers for this transition, she said, requires a strong emphasis on training programs developed in partnership with community colleges and the public sector. These efforts are essential not only to build technical skills, but also to give workers the confidence to adapt and thrive.
Porat’s core message to Governors was clear: focus on AI’s tangible benefits at the state level, highlight small business success stories, and ensure that the private sector remains accountable for protecting energy affordability and investing in local communities over the long term.
That theme of long-term investment and partnership continued with the next speaker. Sara O’Rourke, a leader in JPMorgan Chase’s new Security and Resiliency Initiative, outlined the firm’s commitment to strengthening America’s economic foundation. Drawing on her experience at the CHIPS Program Office, O’Rourke emphasized that national security is inseparable from the nation’s ability to build, produce, and innovate domestically.
JPMorgan Chase has launched a $1.5 trillion, 10-year commitment to finance and invest in critical industries, including supply chain and advanced manufacturing, defense and aerospace, energy independence, frontier technologies, and pharmaceutical and health technology sectors. The initiative also includes $10 billion in direct equity investments designed to help select companies scale and accelerate domestic manufacturing.
O’Rourke stressed that the initiative is about more than deploying capital. Its success, she said, depends on deep partnerships among Governors, businesses, and investors to create durable economic growth. Her vision centers on states, industry, and capital working together to build a stronger economic foundation for the next generation.
Governor Stitt was then joined by Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, and Brad Gerstner, founder of Invest America, for a discussion on how Governors can partner with philanthropy through the Invest in America platform to promote long-term economic prosperity.
Gerstner explained the origins of the initiative, noting that with 70 percent of Americans unable to cover a $400 emergency expense, the growing wealth gap poses a serious threat to the American experiment. His proposed solution is to establish a $1,000 investment account for every child in America at birth. Under the program, the U.S. Treasury would automatically contribute $1,000 to each child born after January 1, 2025, with funds invested in the S&P 500 and growing through compound interest.
Governor Lamont highlighted Connecticut’s early leadership through its own baby bonds program, which provides $3,000 to children at birth, and praised Ray Dalio’s $75 million commitment to seed accounts for approximately 300,000 Connecticut children. Dalio emphasized that financial ownership must be paired with financial literacy, arguing that early exposure to investing helps young people develop productive habits and long-term economic confidence.
Gerstner noted that more than two million children have already claimed accounts, with a goal of reaching 20 million by July 4. Research commissioned by the initiative shows that children with accounts are more likely to graduate from high school and college, purchase a home, start a business, and experience fewer mental health challenges. Corporations including Nvidia, Uber, and T-Mobile have committed to contributing to employees’ children’s accounts, while philanthropists continue to expand the effort across states nationwide.
Learn more Governor Stitt’s Reigniting the American Dream initiative.
