Musk pledges to give ‘every kid in America’ one of his SpaceX shares

What happened

Elon Musk said he will give one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America in 2027. He also said he wants to give the shares directly to the public. This came a few hours after Anthropic, an AI company, said it would put 5% of its shares into a new public benefit fund.

Key numbers

• One SpaceX share is worth about $146 right now.
• The gift would be worth more than $10 billion at that price.
• That is about 1% of Musk's $1 trillion net worth.
• There are more than 70 million children under 18 in the U.S.
• Musk owns about 849 million Class A shares and over 5.5 billion Class B shares of SpaceX.

Some background

Trump Accounts are bank accounts for children set up by the U.S. Treasury. They can accept stock gifts from rich donors. President Trump, whom Musk spent about $300 million to help elect, created them. Musk's giving so far has mostly gone through the Musk Foundation. A review by The Economist found that most of its money went to groups tied to Musk in some way.

Why it matters

This would be one of the largest giveaways of company stock ever promised to the public. It also raises questions about how it would work and who would benefit. Critics may ask whether gifts that go to Musk-linked groups really help the public. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What to watch

• How Musk plans to give out the shares, which is still not clear.
• Whether Trump Accounts are used for the gifts.
• Whether Anthropic's IPO and fund plans move forward as described.
• Whether more share donations follow, as Musk says.