Elon Musk pledges one SpaceX share to every American child in 2027

The pledge

Elon Musk said on X that he will give one share of SpaceX to every child in the United States next year, in a post published in the early hours of Monday, 19 October. He added a line suggesting more could follow:

This will be the first of many.

He has not said which children would qualify or how the shares would reach them, and he did not respond to a request for comment from The New York Times. The announcement came shortly after Anthropic, an AI rival and customer of SpaceX, said it would channel a significant portion of its shares into a public benefit fund. Il Sole 24 ORE reported that Musk, responding to Anthropic's move, advised donating shares directly to the public.

Scale of the gift

Europa Press cited census figures of about 72 million under-18s in the United States, which at the Friday, 16 October close of $146.03 per share would total roughly $10.5 billion. The New York Times put the share price at about $148. Musk holds about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares, and more than 6.4 billion once options and other incentives are counted, according to figures cited in the coverage. The Times cited Bloomberg's estimate of his net worth at around $904 billion. Under lockup provisions, Musk cannot sell or trade the bulk of his stock until June 2027, and the Times said the pledge would be his largest charitable donation to date.

Trump accounts and political context

In July 2026, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell announced a donation of one share to each of about 2 million children with investment accounts under the Invest America program, Europa Press reported. On 19 October, President Donald Trump posted on social media that Musk would give the shares to Trump accounts, a government-run savings program for US children, according to The New York Times. The Wall Street Journal, cited by La Razón, reported that Musk had pointed to Trump accounts as a possible route. La Razón also said that no requirements, procedure or schedule had been published. Since July 2026, Musk has contributed 276 million dollars to Republican groups, La Razón reported. AGI framed the pledge against the midterm elections in November, noting that Trump's popularity has fallen while the Republican Party's coffers are fuller than the Democrats'.

SpaceX's finances

SpaceX debuted on the Nasdaq on 12 June at $135 per share, and La Razón reported that the stock has at one point traded above $225. The company reported a second-quarter 2026 loss of $541 million, against $1,008 million in the same quarter of 2025, an improvement of 46.3% according to Europa Press. Revenue for the quarter reached $7,814 million, 92% more than a year earlier, and first-half revenue totalled $12,508 million, up 53.7%. The first-half loss stood at $5,488 million, 257% higher than the $1,536 million loss recorded in the first half of 2025, even though the second-quarter loss roughly halved. SpaceX is scheduled to publish its third-quarter results on Tuesday, 20 October.