Is Elon Musk aiming to share a piece of his staggering wealth — or is he trying to build a new generation of investors in his SpaceX?
Early Monday, the tech mega-billionaire posted on X, “Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many.”
Musk — the richest person in the world — didn’t explain how “every kid” in the U.S. would be granted one of his company shares. But it’s just a drop in the bucket of his overall wealth: Musk owns around 6.42 billion shares of SpaceX, which represents a 48.4% beneficial stake in the company. Overall, his net worth is currently estimated at $908 billion, according to Bloomberg.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 21.1% of the U.S.’s approximately 341.8 million residents were under 18 as of July 2025, around 72.1 million total. If all 72 million received a SpaceX share, the total giveaway would be worth more than $10.5 billion at the current stock price.
SpaceX is Musk’s company that encompasses rocket manufacturer and space-flight operator, satellite internet service provider, AI firm and owner of X (formerly Twitter) all rolled into one. SpaceX went public in June; it debuted at $150/share, then spiked to as high as $225.64/share in the week after the IPO but has since declined. It currently is trading at under $150/share.
What motivated Musk to make the SpaceX share-giveaway pledge? It seems to have been this: On Sunday, Anthropic announced it would commit at least 5% of its shares to a newly formed Anthropic Public Benefit Fund. The fund will be a “wholly owned limited liability company” that will be able to make large donations to nonprofits or “direct distributions” to specific populations, according to the AI company.
Musk, replying on X to Anthropic, commented: “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” adding, “This is what I will be doing.” Several hours later, Musk announced his plan to give one of his SpaceX shares to every American child.
Leave a Reply