ELON MUSK PLEDGES SPACEX SHARES TO US CHILDREN

Elon Musk said on Monday that he would give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in the United States next year. “Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many,” Musk wrote on X. Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, gave no details about how he would distribute the shares. He did not explain how he would fund the proposed giveaway.

Estimates put the shares’ total value between $10.5 billion and $10.7 billion, using Friday’s closing price of about $146 a share. Estimates of the number of US children range from 72 million to approximately 73 million; official census data counted 72 million under-18s on 1 July 2025. An August filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission put Musk’s SpaceX holding at about 4.8 billion shares. Including unvested awards and options, the filing put his beneficial stake at 6.4 billion shares, or 48.4% of the company.

Musk’s announcement followed a proposal by Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, to commit 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund. Anthropic said the fund could make large donations to non-profit organisations or distribute shares directly to specific groups. Responding to Anthropic, Musk wrote: “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public.” The US Treasury Department has also moved to enrol millions of children in Trump Accounts. Under that programme, children born from the start of 2025 through the end of 2028 qualify for a one-off $1,000 government contribution.