AI news · SpaceX · Anthropic
Musk pledges a SpaceX share to every US child next year
The post on X came hours after Musk told Anthropic to hand its shares straight to the public. He gave no detail on how the gift would work.
Elon Musk said on Monday 19 October 2026 that every child in the US will get one of his SpaceX shares next year. In the same post on X he promised more to come, calling it “the first of many”, but set out no plan for delivering the shares. CNBC puts the gift at about $10.5 billion.
That figure assumes 72 million Americans under 18 and SpaceX’s closing price of $146.03 on Friday, CNBC says. TechCrunch describes SpaceX as Musk’s combined spaceflight and AI company.
The pledge was a reply to Anthropic. On Sunday the Claude maker announced a public benefit fund holding 5 per cent of its shares, subject to shareholder approval, which could make large donations, pay money to particular groups or tackle AI’s effect on jobs. We covered the fund on 19 October. Under Anthropic’s post, Musk wrote that handing shares straight to the public would be better, and hours later said that was his own plan.
The route now looks like Trump Accounts, the government-seeded savings accounts for children. Musk thanked their backer Brad Gerstner for helping, and President Trump said on Truth Social the shares will go through them, The Verge reports. NBC News recalls promises Musk did not keep, such as his 2018 claim of secured funding to take Tesla private.
For anyone tracking who owns the AI industry, two rival AI owners have now pledged shares to the public within a day of each other.
Sources
- CNBC: Elon Musk says he’ll give a SpaceX share to every child in America next year. Checked
- NBC News: Elon Musk and Anthropic make promises to give the public a piece of the AI pie. Checked
- TechCrunch: Musk pledges to give ‘every kid in America’ one of his SpaceX shares. Checked
- The Verge: Elon Musk’s SpaceX shares for kids will go through Trump Accounts. Checked
Alexandre S.
Alexandre S. is a creative ad strategist and copywriter with ten years' experience in digital marketing across multiple channels.
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