Elon Musk Makes Huge Promise To Every Child In America

Trillionaire Elon Musk promised on Monday to give every kid in America a share of SpaceX. 

“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” he announced. “This will be the first of many,” he added, appearing to signal there could be future gifts. 

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

Musk’s promise would be worth over $10 billion in shares based on SpaceX’s closing price of $146.03 on Friday and the population in the United States standing at around 72 million who are under 18 years old.

Although Musk did not say how the gift would be given, he could send the money to children’s Trump Accounts. Investor Brad Gerstner, who helped develop the idea for Trump Accounts, celebrated the announcement.

“Incredible Elon! This will be the largest philanthropic gift in history,” Gerstner wrote.

“70 million accounts, every citizen under 18 and every child born forevermore now has a free, lifetime investment account making them an owner in the upside of America & our greatest companies,” he added.

Michael Dell, who pledged a record $6.25 billion to Trump Accounts with his wife Susan Dell, also congratulated Musk on his decision.

“This is tremendous news for America’s children. An entire generation will grow up as SpaceX owners,” said Dell. 

In July, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell announced that she and her husband would be giving a SpaceX share to over two million children in the United States. Shotwell specified she would send the shares to children via the Trump Accounts and target children between 11 and 17 who are living in areas with lower average household incomes. 

“We have been fortunate in our careers and hope this gift encourages the next generation to continue the journey of enabling humanity to live and fly amongst the stars,” Shotwell said.

Musk’s latest pledge came a day after he encouraged artificial intelligence giant Anthropic to distribute shares directly to the public in response to the company’s announcement that it would be giving 5% of its shares to its Public Benefit Fund. 

“I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,” Musk wrote Sunday.

Anthropic’s Public Benefit Fund is set up to “explore large donations to traditional nonprofits or direct distributions to specific populations.” The fund will be established as a limited liability company and will not be used for lobbying or political giving, according to the company. 

Musk has also given away billions of dollars in Tesla stock. In 2024, he gave $108 million worth of Tesla shares to different charities, gave $1.95 billion in 2022, and in 2021 donated about $5.7 billion.