Musk promises one SpaceX share to every US child

What exactly Musk announced

On Monday, Musk promised that he would give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in the US as early as next year. The post on X was short: "This will be the first of many".

The scale is impressive. According to an August filing with the SEC, Musk controls about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares, and with unexercised awards and options, 6.4 billion. That is a 48.4 percent stake in the company. There are 72 million children under the age of 18 in the US, according to official census data from July 1, 2025. At SpaceX's closing price of 146.03 USD on Friday, the donation would be worth about 10.5 billion USD.

In separate replies on X, Musk wrote that he wants to give the shares "directly to the public". Those are his own words, not a declaration of a mechanism.

Context: Musk's post appeared several hours after Anthropic announced it would give 5 percent of its shares to a new public benefit fund. Musk replied to that post that he would do it directly himself.

What the transfer mechanism would look like

The distribution channel was suggested by Brad Gerstner, founder of Invest America and Trump Accounts. In a post on X, he stated that SpaceX shares could go to children precisely through Trump Accounts. Musk replied to him briefly: "Thanks for helping enable this".

• Trump Accounts are bank accounts for children established by the Treasury. They can accept stock donations from wealthy donors.
• SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell announced several months earlier that she would give SpaceX shares to 2 million Trump Accounts.
• Musk did not provide further details on how the shares would be transferred.

Gerstner called it "the largest philanthropic gift in history".

The Musk Foundation initiative, through which the billionaire conducts his charitable activities, has been criticized in the past for directing most of its funds to entities connected to Musk. The promise made in a post on X is not a legal obligation. According to The Economist, nearly 60 percent of the foundation's funds went to another charity run by Jared Birchall, who manages Musk's finances.

Musk's earlier philanthropic declarations have not always been fulfilled. Between 2016 and 2020, he donated about 38 million USD to OpenAI, although he had promised up to 1 billion USD. In 2021, he pledged 6 billion USD to the UN World Food Programme, but after the WFP presented its plan, he did not transfer the funds.

Political background

Musk is the largest known donor in the campaign ahead of the 2026 congressional elections. Since July, he has donated more than 276 million USD to Republican groups. In September, he contributed 158 million USD to the Senate Leadership Fund, the Republican Party's main super PAC in the Senate. His two donations — 75 million and 83 million USD — are among the largest in the history of American politics.

Sources

• CNBC Technology: Elon Musk says he'll give a SpaceX share to every child in America next year
• Gizmodo: Elon Musk (Kinda) Promises to Give SpaceX Shares to ‘Every Kid In America’
• The Verge - Tech: Elon Musk promises to give one SpaceX share to every child in the US
• TechCrunch: Musk pledges to give ‘every kid in America’ one of his SpaceX shares

Article prepared with the help of artificial intelligence based on: CNBC Technology, Gizmodo, The Verge - Tech, TechCrunch. Facts checked automatically against these sources. The Wiadomości PRO newsroom is responsible for this publication.