Elon Musk says he'll give a SpaceX share to every child in America next year

Elon Musk announced he will give one SpaceX share to every child in the United States next year, saying on X that "This will be the first of many," but offering no details on how the distributions would work. With roughly 72 million U.S. children under 18 and SpaceX trading around $146 a share at the cited close, a one-share gift per child would equal about $10.5 billion in value. Musk currently holds about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares directly, rising to 6.4 billion when unvested awards and options are counted, a stake representing roughly 48.4% of the company.

The pledge arrives amid intense public scrutiny of Musk’s recent political spending - more than $276 million to Republican groups since July, including $158 million funneled to a major Senate super PAC through an affiliated Texas political committee - and in the wake of other tech firms proposing citizen-focused share commitments. Anthropic, for example, announced plans to set aside 5% of its shares for a public benefit fund (with a board option to add incremental percentages tied to valuation growth), a structure Musk said could be improved by distributing shares directly to people. No operational plan, timetable or legal framework for the SpaceX giveaway has been disclosed.