Rockefeller Foundation, OpenAI Foundation Announce $50 Million Partnership to Help Cities Improve Public Services Through AI

Global open call invites proposals from city partners to use frontier AI solutions to advance public services across public health, economic mobility, environmental resilience, and civic engagement 

NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Rockefeller Foundation and OpenAI Foundation launched Cities Deliver: AI Solutions for Public Services, a $50 million initiative to support organizations that help cities around the world use artificial intelligence to better anticipate and meet residents' needs. Through a global open call, the initiative will identify and support eligible nonprofit and civil society institutions working with city governments to improve public health, economic mobility, environmental resilience, and civic engagement. Cities Deliver will award grants ranging from $500,000 to $2 million, aiming to reach up to 100 million city residents globally. Applications open on October 14 and close on November 29, 2026.

Cities Deliver builds on a 2023 convening organized by The Rockefeller Foundation and OpenAI, which brought together more than 40 civic leaders from six continents alongside academic, philanthropic, and nonprofit partners. Participants highlighted the need for talent, tools, and resources to apply AI responsibly. The Rockefeller Foundation subsequently supported projects in Cali, Colombia; Cape Town, South Africa; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Rockefeller Foundation also plans to provide follow-on grants to several partners from these early projects. Planned expansions include Rio's AI-enabled flood-alert system, which would reach more residents and cover additional extreme weather events; Dengue.AI's outbreak forecasting, which would expand from Cali to Cartagena; and Cape Town's resident-engagement platform, which would grow its reach in the city and beyond.

"Over the past three years, we've seen what happens when city leaders, researchers, and local innovators build with AI around real problems. Cities Deliver takes what's working in Cali, Cape Town, Rio, and elsewhere and opens it up to institutions everywhere, so more cities can benefit from the same kind of partnership," said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation.

"Cities are on the front lines of some of the biggest challenges facing communities, and the organizations working alongside them understand what it takes to deliver solutions that work," said Anna Makanju, Head of Civil Society & Philanthropy at OpenAI Foundation. "AI can help them reach residents faster, anticipate problems earlier, and make public services more responsive to the people they serve. By partnering with the Rockefeller Foundation, we can pair the potential of AI with deep local expertise and help promising solutions reach more people and communities around the world."

According to the UN's 2025 estimates, 45% of the world's 8.2 billion people live in cities, and city services directly shape whether residents stay healthy, find meaningful work, live safely, and have a voice in decisions that affect them. Yet city governments face significant barriers to adopting AI, including high implementation costs and uncertainty around data protection.

Cities Deliver will seek to address these challenges, in part, by combining philanthropic funding, opportunities for shared learning, and access to networks of city leaders and technical partners to help organizations improve public services through AI.

Cities Deliver seeks projects with the potential to meaningfully and measurably improve access to and the quality of public services. The call focuses on four areas:

• Public health. Solutions that extend the reach and readiness of public health systems, from frontline care and disease surveillance to population-scale prevention. Includes healthcare, disability services, food access and nutrition. 
• Economic mobility. Solutions that connect unemployed and underemployed residents to income, skills, and benefits, including through benefits enrollment, career navigation, skills-based hiring, and employer-aligned training.
• Environmental resilience. Solutions that help cities forecast, withstand, and recover from environmental shocks, protecting both people and the communities where they live. Includes public safety and emergency services, energy and grid infrastructure, and land management in communities at risk. 
• Civic engagement. Solutions that help city governments reach residents proactively and respond faster, from two-way service channels to participatory decision-making. Includes digital access and connectivity, court services, and permitting and regulatory processes. Excludes projects related to voting or elections. 

Every project must be led by an eligible organization, include a city government partner committed to collaborating on the work, and serve a charitable purpose. Each solution must include a meaningful frontier AI component, using recent AI models to complete complex tasks, and may combine these capabilities with existing city tools and systems. Applicants may choose the AI models and products that best meet their needs, with no requirement or preference to use OpenAI technology.

Eligible organizations can review the requirements and submit their initial application here. Applicants who advance will be invited to the next stage of the selection process.

 Feedback on Existing Cities Projects:

"Our partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation has resulted in AI-powered tools that will transform how we engage with Cape Town's residents, meeting them where they already are: in their own language, by voice or text, on a platform they use every day. These tools will help to enable active citizenry and improve service delivery for our residents. We hope this approach offers a practical model that other cities can adapt and scale to strengthen resident engagement in their own communities." - Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, Cape Town, South Africa 

"In Cali, our partnership between the government, academia, philanthropy, and the private sector enabled us to develop the Dengue AI solution, which helps us anticipate dengue outbreaks up to three weeks in advance, strengthening prevention efforts against this public health threat (benefiting more than 2.2 million citizens)... I firmly believe that when cities connect talent, data, and innovation to address actual problems, technology becomes a public good that improves the quality of life for millions of people." - Mayor Alejandro Eder, Cali, Colombia 

"Our partnership with Columbia University and The Rockefeller Foundation has been critical to transforming flood risk management in Rio de Janeiro, consolidating the use of artificial intelligence to protect vulnerable populations in Acari and Jardim Maravilha. By demonstrating the effectiveness of our WhatsApp alert system powered by AI, we offer a practical, scalable model for other cities to anticipate climate challenges. " - Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

About OpenAI Foundation:
OpenAI Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to ensuring AI benefits all of humanity. The Foundation supports initiatives advancing scientific discovery, strengthening civil society, and building resilience through responsible AI. Through grants, partnerships, and other philanthropic initiatives, the Foundation helps accelerate work that creates lasting public benefit and expands access to AI's transformative potential. OpenAI Foundation is a separate nonprofit corporation from OpenAI PBC that operates independently in support of its charitable mission. Learn more at www.openaifoundation.org.

About The Rockefeller Foundation:
The Rockefeller Foundation's first investment in AI dates back to 1956, during the Dartmouth Conference that coined the term artificial intelligence. Investing $30 billion over the last 113 years to promote the well-being of humanity, The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on unlikely partnerships and innovative solutions that deliver measurable results for people in the United States and around the world, including in association with RF Catalytic Capital Inc (RFCC). We leverage scientific breakthroughs, artificial intelligence, and new technologies to make big bets across energy, food, health, and finance. For more information, follow us on LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation, X @RockefellerFdn, Instagram @rockefellerfdn, and YouTube @rockefellerfound, and sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe. 

Cities Deliver is managed by RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC), an affiliate of The Rockefeller Foundation.

SOURCE The Rockefeller Foundation