SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is awarded the National Medal of Science during the “Golden Age of American Innovation Summit” at the Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 8, 2026. (Kent Nishimura – AFP / Getty Images)
By V. Saxena October 19, 2026 at 6:56am
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, announced early Monday that he intends to “give” a share of SpaceX to every child in America starting next year.
“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” the entrepreneur revealed on X, which he also owns. “This will be the first of many.”
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
According to The New York Times, there were roughly 72 million children in America as of 2025, meaning Musk’s donation would be worth an estimated $10.5 billion based on SpaceX’s latest stock price.
SpaceX, which only began trading publicly in June, closed at $146.03 on Friday. It was down from a high of around $225 in the immediate days after its initial public offering on June 12.
Musk’s announcement came a day after the top artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced plans to commit at least 5 percent of its shares to a “Public Benefit Fund” to be used to promote social causes.
“Because of the way the Fund is structured, the more Anthropic grows, the larger the share of the company that can be dedicated expressly to the public good,” the company announced in a news release.
Should more billionaires follow Musk’s model of giving directly to the public?
“It is common practice for tech companies to offer escalating compensation awards to their executives,” the announcement continued. “We are instead directing that equity to the public benefit.”
Musk reacted with a rebuttal posted to X. “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” he told the company.
@AnthropicAI I recommend giving the shares directly to the public
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2026
The only catch appears to be that, on account of SpaceX’s recent IPO, Musk “is not able to sell or trade the bulk of his stock until June 2027 because of so-called lockup provisions,” according to The New York Times.
Musk also previously signed the Giving Pledge, a global campaign that asks the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving away at least 50 percent of their wealth to charitable causes, either while alive or after their deaths.
Earlier this year, embattled billionaire Bill Gates praised Musk for signing the pledge:
Bill Gates speaks on Elon Musk: “He’s a member of the giving pledge. I admire a lot of the great work he’s done. He finds time to do a lot of things.”
https://t.co/NBKPpuZiz3
— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) February 9, 2026
Musk isn’t the only individual at SpaceX participating in donations.
In July, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell pledged to donate $320 million of her own shares to Trump Accounts for children.
“Shotwell said she would donate one share of SpaceX stock, worth $165 on Monday, to accounts for more than 2 million children, with a focus on lower-income families in Texas, where SpaceX is based,” Semafor confirmed at the time.
My husband and I are honored and thrilled to participate in the Invest America program and gift a share of our SpaceX stock to a Trump Account for each of more than two million children across our great nation.
Every American child under 18 can benefit from having a Trump Account, but our gift specifically goes to the Accounts of children (ages 11-17) that live in areas with lower average household incomes…
— Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell) July 6, 2026
In a post published to X, Shotwell added that both she and her husband were “honored and thrilled to participate.”
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V. Saxena is a seasoned conservative news writer and commentator with a decade of experience in the industry. When not at work, he can be found working out or tending to his popular bird feeder.
