Elon Musk said Monday he will give one SpaceX share to each of the roughly 72 million children in the United States next year, a distribution that would transfer about $10.5 billion of stock at Friday's closing price of $146.03. The pledge appeared in a post on X without details on mechanics, eligibility verification, or tax treatment.
The arithmetic
Musk holds about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares directly, per an August SEC filing, with unvested awards and options lifting his beneficial position to 6.4 billion shares, or 48.4 percent of the company. Gifting 72 million shares would consume just over 1 percent of the fully diluted count. The $10.5 billion figure assumes the current private-market valuation holds and that every child receives exactly one share.
The Anthropic prompt
The announcement followed Anthropic's Sunday disclosure that it will commit 5 percent of its equity to a new public benefit fund, with the board authorized to add 2 percent more for every 50 percent increase in valuation above an undisclosed baseline. Musk replied to the Anthropic post on X, writing that he recommended giving shares directly to the public and that he would be doing so himself. Anthropic said its fund may explore large donations to nonprofits, direct distributions to specific populations, or research into AI-driven job displacement.
What happens next
SpaceX has not commented on how the transfer would be executed, whether a custodial structure would be used for minors, or how the company's shareholder agreement accommodates a sudden expansion of the cap table by tens of millions of new holders. The pledge also arrives ahead of any shareholder vote that might be required to authorize such a distribution.