Elon Musk to Give Free SpaceX Shares to All Children

SpaceX boss Elon Musk has said that he will give one share in his company to every child in the United States next year.

According to a filing with the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) in August, Musk holds around 4.8 billion SpaceX shares. This figure rises to 6.4 billion shares when taking into account outstanding share-based compensation and share options, representing a 48.4 per cent stake in the company.

As reported by detikINET, citing CNBC, based on official census data, there will be 72 million children under the age of 18 in the US on 1 July 2025.

This means the CEO will distribute shares worth approximately USD 10.5 billion, based on SpaceX’s closing share price of USD 146.03 on Friday.

“This is just the first of many [similar programmes] to come,” Musk said on X, without providing further details on how the share distribution would be carried out.

Musk’s comments came shortly after Anthropic revealed plans to allocate 5 per cent of its shares to a public benefit fund. This shareholding could potentially increase as the company’s valuation grows.

Musk responded to Anthropic’s post on X regarding the fund. “I suggest giving those shares directly to the public,” said the world’s richest man, adding that that is what he would do.

Subject to shareholder approval, the Anthropic fund will shortly allocate 5 per cent of the company’s shares. The board of directors may also add a further 2 per cent of shares for every 50 per cent increase in the company’s value above a pre-determined threshold, which has not yet been disclosed to the public.

The company stated that the fund could be used for large-scale donations, including to traditional non-profit organisations, or distributed directly to specific groups of people. The fund could also be channelled towards more ambitious approaches to examining and addressing the disruption and job losses caused by AI.