Elon Musk says he plans to donate one SpaceX share to “every kid in America” in 2027, a pledge that would be worth more than $10 billion at the company’s current share price of $146. The amount is equivalent to roughly 1% of Musk’s estimated $1 trillion net worth.
Donation Plan Lacks Details
Musk has yet to explain how the shares would be distributed. In a separate post on X, he said he wanted to transfer them “directly to the public”, describing the pledge as the “first of many” shares he intends to give away.
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The announcement comes as US President Donald Trump has introduced Treasury-backed child investment accounts known as Trump Accounts, which can receive stock donations from wealthy contributors. Musk, who spent around $300 million supporting Trump’s election, has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Anthropic’s Fund Prompted The Announcement
Musk’s pledge followed an announcement by AI company Anthropic that it plans to commit 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund. The fund is intended to support initiatives ranging from major donations to non-profit organisations to direct distributions to specific populations following the company’s planned initial public offering.
On Sunday afternoon, Musk responded to Anthropic’s announcement on X, arguing that the company should distribute shares “directly to the public” instead. Hours later, he wrote, “This is what I will be doing”, before announcing his own plan to donate SpaceX stock.
The Scale Of The Proposed Gift
The United States has more than 70 million children under the age of 18, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk holds around 849 million Class A common shares in SpaceX and more than 5.5 billion Class B supervoting shares, giving him a substantial stake from which to make transfers.
So far, most of Musk’s philanthropic activity has been channelled through the Musk Foundation, the fifth-largest private charitable foundation in the United States, despite his public scepticism about philanthropy.
A recent review by The Economist found that much of the foundation’s historical funding had gone to organisations with links to Musk. Nearly 60% of its distributions went to another charity, The Foundation, run by Musk’s money manager, Jared Birchall.
With the proposed 2027 distribution still lacking details, key questions remain over eligibility, the number of shares each child would receive and how the transfer would be administered.
