Will your child become a SpaceX shareholder? They will if Elon Musk lives up to his promise — something he doesn’t have a very good track record of doing.
Early Monday morning, in a post on his social media platform X, Musk shared that he was planning to give a SpaceX share to every child in the U.S. in 2027.
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“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” Musk posted at 3:52 a.m. ET. “This will be the first of many.”
Musk’s post appears to be a response to a recent announcement from Anthropic, an AI company that’s a direct competitor to Musk’s xAI.
On Sunday, Anthropic shared a post regarding the company’s plan to take 5 percent of its shares and put them towards a new entity called the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund. The company said the percentage would grow to around 20 percent as the company’s value increases. In addition, Anthropic’s co-founders have also pledged to donate 80 percent of their equity as well.
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“I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” Musk posted in a reply directly to Anthropic’s X account. “This is what I will be doing.”
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If you’re wondering exactly how Musk plans to go about it, the SpaceX founder appears to have answered that as well — and it involves President Donald Trump’s Invest America accounts.
The Trump administration set up an investment account program for children under 18 called Invest America, also known as Trump accounts, and provided a $1,000 one-time payment to every child with an account who was born during Trump’s second term.
In a reply to a X user who asked Musk if he’d be distributing the shares through Invest America, Musk replied with a simple “Yes.”
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According to the latest U.S. Census, there are currently 72 million children in the country who are under the age of 18. SpaceX stock is currently trading at around $150 a share. If Musk does actually donate a SpaceX share to every child in the U.S., he’s looking at giving away $10.8 billion, which would be the largest donation in history.
However, Musk has a history of not following through with his promises. Aside from all of the various business-related examples, Musk has previously made philanthropic claims and did not deliver.
For example, Musk previously claimed that he would donate $6 billion to solve world hunger if the U.N. World Food Program provided a detailed plan. They did, and Musk did not deliver the donation. In a separate case of Musk’s false promises, he claimed he would fund fixing water contamination issues in any home in Flint, Michigan. He didn’t do that either.
When Musk has donated money in the past, it’s usually to his own charitable group, the Musk Foundation. The organization has more than $14 billion in assets, according to a New York Times report last year. However, the report found that most of the money the Musk Foundation donated went to groups closely tied to him and his businesses.
Will Musk make good on this promise? We’ll have to wait until next year to find out.
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