Musk pledges a SpaceX share to every kid in America

Elon Musk says he will give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in America in 2027, a pledge worth more than $10 billion at the company’s current $146 share price — roughly 1% of Musk’s $1 trillion net worth. He hasn’t detailed the mechanics, but wrote separately that he wants the shares to go straight to the public, calling it the first of many shares he plans to give away. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

The pledge came hours after Anthropic said it would dedicate 5% of its stock to a new public benefit fund, meant to channel big gifts toward nonprofits or route money directly to specific groups of people once the AI company completes its planned IPO. Musk — who spent around $300 million helping elect President Donald Trump — replied to Anthropic’s post suggesting it give directly to the public instead, writing “This is what I will be doing” hours before announcing his own plan overnight.

There are more than 70 million children under 18 in the US. Musk owns around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX and more than 5.5 billion Class B shares that carry supervoting rights, and stands to earn many more. His giving to date has run almost entirely through his own Musk Foundation — the fifth-largest private charitable foundation in the US despite his stated skepticism of philanthropy, though an Economist review found most of its money has flowed to entities connected to Musk, including nearly 60% to The Foundation, run by his money manager, Jared Birchall.

Why it matters

The pledge, if carried out, would add billions in tech wealth to a nascent shift — already visible in Anthropic’s new fund — toward giving stock directly to the public instead of through traditional philanthropic structures like Musk’s own foundation.