Elon Musk has vowed to give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in America next year.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief, 53, posted the pledge early Monday on X, where it racked up nearly 6 million views within hours. Musk did not spell out how he would distribute the shares or structure the giveaway.
“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” he wrote on the platform. “This will be the first of many.”
The promise would carry a staggering price tag. With roughly 72 million children under 18 in the United States according to July census data, and SpaceX shares closing at $146.03 on Friday, the total value of the giveaway would land near $10.5 billion. Musk — whose net worth made him the world’s first trillionaire — offered no timeline beyond 2027 and no details about age cutoffs or transfer mechanics.
The pledge arrived one day after Musk publicly criticized Anthropic, the AI safety and research company, over its own share-allocation plan. Anthropic had announced it would set aside 5% of its shares for a new “public benefit” fund. Musk dismissed that approach on Sunday and offered his own alternative.
“I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” he said. “This is what I will be doing.”
Musk’s post did not clarify whether he intended to transfer actual SpaceX equity to minors or use some intermediary mechanism. SpaceX remains a private company, meaning its shares are not freely tradable on public markets and typically carry transfer restrictions. The firm last completed a tender offer in late 2024 that valued it near $350 billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies globally.
The announcement also left unresolved how Musk would handle children born after any cutoff date, whether guardians would manage shares on behalf of infants, and what tax implications might follow for recipients or for Musk himself. Federal gift tax rules generally require reporting transfers exceeding $18,000 per recipient annually, though lifetime exemptions apply.
Musk has a history of headline-grabbing pledges on X that have mixed follow-through records. In 2018 he tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 per share, triggering an SEC lawsuit and $20 million settlement. More recently he has used the platform to float policy ideas, make political endorsements, and announce product timelines that have slipped. The share giveaway represents his most expansive personal commitment to date.
The contrast with Anthropic’s structure appeared deliberate. That company, founded by former OpenAI researchers, designed its public benefit fund to support broadly defined charitable purposes rather than direct individual transfers. Musk’s framing positioned direct distribution as simpler and more democratic, though legal and logistical hurdles for tens of millions of child recipients would dwarf those of a single institutional fund.
Neither SpaceX nor Musk responded to additional questions about implementation before press time.
Musk’s next major public appearance is scheduled for Thursday in Austin, where Tesla is expected to detail updates to its autonomous driving program.