A coalition of funders, including the Gates Foundation and Ballmer Group, will spend $1 billion over 15 years to help develop artificial intelligence tools for public defenders, parole officers, social workers and others who help Americans in precarious situations.

The funders announced Thursday that they will create NextLadder Ventures to offer grants and investments to nonprofits and for-profits to develop tools for those who often manage huge caseloads with few resources.

“The solutions that we’re investing in, the hundreds of entrepreneurs that are going to bring forward solutions that incorporate leading-edge technologies, are going to do it by coming alongside people who are living through some of the struggles in the economy,” said Brian Hooks, CEO of Stand Together, a nonprofit started by Kansas-based billionaire Charles Koch.

The other funders include hedge fund founder John Overdeck and Valhalla Foundation, which was started by Inuit co-founder Steve Cook and his wife, Signe Ostby. Ballmer Group is the philanthropy of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie. The funders declined to reveal the exact financial commitments made by each of the contributors.

The point of investing in these AI tools is to spur economic mobility, a focus all the funders share, they said. The funders believe there are many ideas for how AI technologies could help match people with resources after a disaster or an eviction, for example, or help a parole officer close out more cases for people who have met all of the criteria but are waiting for the paperwork to be processed.

NextLadder will be led by Ryan Rippel, who previously directed the Gates Foundation’s economic mobility portfolio. The funder group said any returns they make from investments will go back into funding new initiatives.

NextLadder will partner with Anthropic, which will offer technical expertise and access to its AI technologies to the nonprofits and companies it invests in.