Technology and Scienceupdated 1h ago2 min read
Elon Musk Pledges One SpaceX Share For Every US Child Next Year
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Musk pledges one SpaceX share for every US child next year (2027). Plan valued at about $10.5 billion based on 72 million children and SPCX price.
Musk’s 2027 pledge
Elon Musk said Monday that he plans to give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in the US next year, framing it as "the first of many." Musk made the pledge in a post on X, and he did not explain how the shares would be distributed or specify eligibility requirements. The US Census Bureau estimate put the US at around 72.02 million residents under the age of 18 as of July 1, 2025, and Anadolu Ajansı said SpaceX’s closing share price of $146.03 on Friday would make the giveaway worth about $10.52 billion.
An August SEC filing cited by Anadolu Ajansı said Musk held approximately 4.77 billion SpaceX shares through trusts, comprising about 849.5 million Class A shares and 3.92 billion Class B shares, and it put his beneficial ownership at 6.42 billion shares, representing a 48.4% stake. Musk’s plan gives one SpaceX share to every "kid" in America next year, while Musk did not specify whether "kid" meant all minors under 18 or some other status.
How much, and what’s missing
Musk currently owns about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares, and that figure rises to 6.4 billion when taking into account unvested awards and stock options, representing a 48.4% beneficial stake. The giveaway of 72 million children under 18 as of July 1, 2025 would translate into a giveaway of about $10.5 billion worth of shares using SpaceX’s closing stock price of $146.03 as of Friday. Musk’s post did not provide details on how the share giveaway would happen, and CNBC said it reached out to SpaceX for further comment.
SpaceX only began trading publicly in June and Musk’s proposal was thin on detail, including uncertainty about how shares would be distributed to tens of millions of American children. CNN also said Musk’s offer came after Anthropic announced it would commit at least 5% of its shares to a “Public Benefit Fund,” and it quoted Musk’s reply on X: “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public… This is what I will be doing.”
Tech, AI, and the next moves
Musk’s announcement came one day after Anthropic said it was setting up a new public benefit fund with 5% of the company’s equity, which Axios described as potentially worth $100 billion or more. Musk responded to Anthropic’s news by saying "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public," later adding "This is what I will be doing." Musk wrote on X that "We will give one share of SpaceX to every child in the US next year," but the post did not clarify whether shares would be distributed in one phase or in stages.
“We will give one share of SpaceX to every child in the US next year.”
Musk had not announced a specific date or month for the giveaway, and the company had not explained whether recipients would be able to transfer or sell their shares or whether restrictions would apply. CNN tied the pledge to broader scrutiny of tech firms, saying it came as tech firms faced intensifying scrutiny over their impact on society and as AI companies faced backlash over the safety of their products.