Elon Musk said in a social media post Monday that he plans to give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in the United States, writing that the gift “will be the first of many.”
Musk did not specify how the shares would be distributed or other details on how the commitment might be fulfilled. The offer came a day after artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced it would dedicate 5% of its shares to a new “public benefit” fund.
Anthropic said it would contribute 2% more shares, at the discretion of its board, for every 50% increase in company value, above a set threshold.
Shares of SpaceX, which will report quarterly results Tuesday, rose $3.46, or 2.7%, to $149.49 Monday morning.
SpaceX’s CEO is the company’s largest shareholder with a 10.5% stake, according to financial data firm FactSet. His stake included 4.8 billion shares of SpaceX when the company folded. public earlier this yearan event that briefly made Musk the world’s first billionaire.
There are approximately 73 million children in the United States, according to Census Bureau data.
Musk, the world’s richest person, is currently worth around $904 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Anthropic has committed to committing part of its shares to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, which it described as “a new entity”, at a time when AI researchers at major laboratories are warning of apocalyptic scenarios with potentially catastrophic consequences that go well beyond job losses.
Anthropic said the company has a two-pronged mission, with its research providing both a public interest component and lucrative value. The new fund will give it more flexibility to make large donations to nonprofit organizations or gifts to specific populations, the company added.
Anthropic also denounced the impact of AI on workers, acknowledging that technological advances could “cause instability” for many employees, and noted that it had already committed $200 million to analyze and address the effects of AI on parts of the workforce.
“Because of the way the Fund is structured, the larger Anthropic becomes, the greater the portion of the company that can be dedicated expressly to the public good,” Anthropic said.
Musk could possibly use the newly created system Trump Accounts Program to offer SpaceX shares to American children. The accounts, under new rules established by the Treasury, allow donors to deliver shares to the accounts without paying capital gains taxes.
Michael Piwowar, executive director of the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy at Georgetown McDonough, called the Trump accounts “the perfect vehicle” through which Musk could deliver SpaceX stock to recipients.
“One of their great features, in addition to the starting capital of $1,000, is the ability of philanthropists to make philanthropic donations to a category of individuals,” he said.
The Treasury Department is automatically enrolling up to 60 million children in the Trump Accounts program.
Piwowar added that with Musk’s donation, “American children will immediately be invested in the American dream.”
Tax-deferred accounts, created under Mr. Trump’s leadership A big, beautiful tax and spending bill for U.S. citizens born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028, are eligible for a $1,000 seed donation from the government.
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