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
Elon Musk has pledged to give one share of SpaceX to every child in the United States next year, a proposal that could be worth about $10.7 billion based on the company’s recent share price and the number of Americans under 18.
Musk announced the idea in response to Anthropic’s newly unveiled public benefit initiative. Anthropic said it plans to commit 5% of its shares to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, a new entity designed to grow its ownership stake as the AI company increases in value.
In response to Anthropic’s announcement, Musk said he recommended distributing shares directly to the public and pledged one SpaceX share to “every kid in America.”
SpaceX shares were valued at $146.03 as of the prior Friday. With about 73 million people under age 18 in the United States, distributing one share to each child at that valuation would cost about $10.66 billion.
Musk did not provide details on how the distribution would work, including eligibility requirements, how minors would hold shares, whether recipients would face restrictions on selling them, or how the program would address administrative and regulatory issues. He indicated, however, that the SpaceX distribution could be followed by additional initiatives.
The proposal emerged one day after Anthropic outlined its own approach to dedicating company equity to public-benefit purposes. Subject to stockholder approval, Anthropic plans to initially commit 5% of its shares to its new fund, with the possibility of contributing another 2% for every 50% increase in the company’s value above a predetermined baseline.
Anthropic has said that when its new fund is combined with equity donation commitments already made by founders and employees, roughly 20% of the company’s shares will be dedicated to public-benefit purposes, with the potential for that percentage to increase as certain valuation milestones are reached.
Musk’s approach would differ by distributing ownership directly to individuals rather than placing shares into an entity tasked with deploying resources for broader public initiatives.
