Elon Musk says he plans to give one SpaceX share to every child in the United States, setting up a potentially massive stock giveaway that would give millions of young Americans a direct financial stake in one of the world’s most valuable technology companies.
“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many,” Musk wrote on social media.
The scale of the plan could be enormous. Census Bureau data cited in the report puts the number of children in the United States at about 73 million. SpaceX shares were trading at $149.49 on Monday, meaning a one-share distribution across that population would represent stock worth roughly $10.9 billion at that price.
Musk, who reached trillionaire status earlier this month, is SpaceX’s largest shareholder, holding a 10.5% stake that included about 4.8 billion shares when the company went public earlier this year. SpaceX has a valuation nearing $2 trillion—roughly $1.85 trillion.
President Donald J. Trump said the shares would be delivered through the recently created Trump Accounts program, which allows donors to contribute stock to children’s investment accounts under new Treasury rules.
Trump thanked Musk for his “incredible generosity” and said the planned donation was “exactly what was envisioned when we created TRUMP ACCOUNTS.”
The Treasury Department is automatically enrolling up to 60 million children in the program. Michael Piwowar, executive director of Georgetown McDonough’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy, described the accounts as a suitable vehicle for Musk’s proposed distribution because they can receive philanthropic stock contributions for groups of beneficiaries.
“One of their great features, in addition to $1,000 seed money, is the ability of philanthropists to make philanthropic donations to a class of individuals,” Piwowar said.
The pledge came shortly after artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced it would place 5% of its shares into a new public benefit fund, with provisions allowing that share to increase as the company grows.
