"Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America," Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and world's richest man, pledged Monday in a post on X. Musk added: "This will be the first of many."
Musk's announcement follows a series of similar pledges by leading figures in the U.S. technology industry to share some of the enormous wealth accumulated by their companies with the public. His statement came in response to an announcement by artificial intelligence company Anthropic just 12 hours earlier, in which it pledged to donate 5% of its shares to a new fund dedicated to public welfare.
Gallery
Elon Musk promised that this donation would be 'the first of many'
(Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
The maker of the Claude AI chatbot said the initiative would allow it to make substantial donations to nonprofit organizations or provide "direct distributions" to certain populations. Musk responded by arguing that shares should be distributed directly to the public, announcing his own planned donation.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, there are approximately 73 million children under the age of 18 in the United States. Based on SpaceX's closing share price of approximately $146.03, the estimated value of Musk's proposed giveaway would be around $10.6 billion to $11 billion.
Musk, whose net worth stands at approximately $904 billion according to Bloomberg, did not explain how he intends to transfer the shares to millions of children, who would qualify or whether the shares would be deposited into savings accounts.
His use of the phrase "my SpaceX shares" suggests that the donation would come from his personal holdings rather than newly issued company shares.
It appears the donation will come from his personal holdings rather than newly issued company shares
(Photo: Eric Gay/AP)
Musk is SpaceX's largest shareholder, controlling more than 6.4 billion shares. The company held its initial public offering in June, and Musk is prohibited from selling or trading most of his shares until June 2027.
It remains unclear whether the pledge is also connected to "Trump Accounts," a new savings and investment vehicle for American children introduced as part of the administration's tax legislation and economic initiatives. American children born during President Donald Trump's second term receive an initial $1,000 grant deposited directly into an account in their name.
The program allows contributions from private donors and foundations. Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department expanded it to permit donations of individual company stocks. The goal is to establish a foundation for long-term economic growth for younger generations. The funds are invested in the stock market and intended to accumulate over the years to help finance education, home purchases or broader financial development.
Earlier this year, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and her husband, Robert, also pledged to personally donate more than $320 million in SpaceX shares to Trump Accounts for more than 2 million children, focusing on low-income areas of Texas, where SpaceX is based.
Musk himself signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, a commitment by some of the world's wealthiest individuals to donate half their fortunes, although he has expressed skepticism about traditional philanthropy. His nonprofit organization, the Musk Foundation, held assets worth more than $14 billion at the end of last year.
In 2021, amid a public debate over his tax obligations, Musk promised to donate $6 billion to the United Nations World Food Programme if the organization could explain how it would use the money "to solve world hunger." The organization developed a plan, but the donation never materialized.