Elon Musk said on Monday that he plans to give one of his own SpaceX shares to every child in the United States in 2027, a promise worth more than $10 billion at the stock’s latest price.
The billionaire made the announcement in a short post on X. “Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” he wrote, before adding, “This will be the first of many.”
So how large is the gift? The country has between 72 million and 73 million people under the age of 18, according to Census figures cited by CNN and Variety. With SpaceX closing Friday at $146.03 a share, the total comes to somewhere between $10.5 billion and $10.7 billion, depending on the head count.
However, Musk gave no details on how the shares would reach families, which children would qualify or when in 2027 the transfers would happen.
A small slice of a very large stake
For Musk, the giveaway would barely dent his position in the company. He holds about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares, according to an August SEC filing cited by CNBC, and that figure climbs to 6.4 billion once unvested awards and stock options are counted, giving him a 48.4% beneficial stake. As a result, handing out 72 million shares would use up only about 1.1% of that stake.
Forbes put his net worth at $908.5 billion on Monday, IBTimes UK reported. He keeps about 85% of the voting control at SpaceX, so children who receive a share would gain a piece of any future growth but no real say in how the company is run.
The plan is a change in tone from what Musk said in May 2023. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council, he said he did not favor automatically handing his own children shares of his companies if they had no interest in running them or the ability to do so.
What prompted the announcement
The pledge grew out of a public back-and-forth with Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company. On Sunday, Anthropic said it would set aside at least 5% of its shares for a new Public Benefit Fund, a stake valued at about $48 billion based on its most recent private valuation and subject to stockholder approval.
According to CNN, the company said the fund could make large gifts to nonprofit organizations or send money directly to certain populations, and it could help soften the effect of AI on jobs. Musk replied on X with a different approach. “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” he wrote, and he added that this was his own plan. A few hours later he posted the pledge to American children.
Trump Accounts seen as the likely route
Musk did not mention Trump Accounts in his post. Still, analysts quoted by Benzinga see the federal investment accounts for children, which launched on July 4, 2026, as the most likely way to deliver the shares. And the program has grown fast this month, with the Treasury Department enrolling more than 60 million children automatically and bringing the total close to 70 million accounts.
The rules for stock gifts are already on the books. In late September, the IRS issued regulations that allow donors to contribute stock to the accounts. SpaceX leadership has tested the idea before, too. In July, company President Gwynne Shotwell and her husband pledged one share each to more than 2 million children with accounts, giving priority to lower-income households in Texas.
Reaction divides along political lines
The response broke down mostly along party lines. On the right, Altimeter Capital’s Brad Gerstner, a founder of Invest America and a backer of Trump Accounts, called the move the largest philanthropic gift in history in a post cited by CNBC. Michael Dell, who has pledged $6.25 billion to children with the accounts, welcomed the news as well.
Critics, however, doubted that Musk would deliver. Former Democratic congressional candidate Melanie D’Arrigo brought up the $5,000 DOGE refund checks that Musk and the administration once floated and never paid out. CNN, for its part, placed the pledge against the growing scrutiny tech companies face over their impact on society and asked if it amounted to damage control.
SpaceX went public in June in the biggest initial public offering on record. The stock opened at $150 a share and climbed as high as $225.64 in the week that followed, but it has since slipped back under $150.
Analysts say gifted shares held in children’s accounts would likely stay off the market for years. But the pledge does nothing to change the company’s fundamentals, and the real test will come once Musk lays out how the shares will actually reach families.
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