Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, said he would give every American child a share of his SpaceX fortune. And if he keeps his promise, the entrepreneur would spend more than $10 billion on America’s children.
“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every child in America,” Musk wrote in a recent post on X. “This will be the first of many.”
The 55-year-old, worth $904 billion, currently owns about 4.8 billion shares of SpaceX stock, according to an August filing with the SEC. (Considering its unvested awards and stock options, that number rises to 6.4 billion.) That means the roughly 72 million U.S. children under the age of 18 would each receive one share of stock currently worth $146.03, based on SpaceX’s closing stock price on Friday. In total, America’s children would receive a whopping $10.5 billion in shares of the aerospace company. And this eye-popping gift would have virtually no impact on his holdings: giving away 72 million shares would reduce Musk’s SpaceX stock count by just 1.5%.
The series founder did not share further on the timeline or details of his proposed plan. His commitment is part of a broader effort to create wealth for America’s children. Earlier this month, the Treasury Department automatically enrolled millions of American children in Trump accounts, a new federal savings and investment vehicle offering a one-time government contribution of $1,000.
Yet the billionaire’s own predictions suggest that money — and by extension, the monetary value of SpaceX’s shares and investments — could become meaningless in the very future these children will inherit.
Fortune has contacted SpaceX for comment.
Musk wonders if ‘money will matter’ in the future
Musk’s proposal followed just after Anthropic announced plans to commit 5% of its shares to a new “public benefit” fund, to which the Tesla founder responded on X by saying, “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public.” » His call to distribute shares directly to the public comes amid his predictions that AI could fundamentally reshape the relationship between work, wealth and money.
SpaceX’s CEO predicts that AI and robots will usher in an “age of abundance” where technology will do most of the work, potentially reducing people’s need to earn a living. Everything from childcare to white-collar work will be automated, and Musk said the tools will make more goods and services available than people might need. Without any humans working on conveyor lines or filling offices, the concept of money will become irrelevant in an AI future, he believes.
“My prediction is that there will indeed be a high universal income,” Musk said in an interview last month with state-owned China Media Group. “Actually, I’m not sure money will matter in the future.”
Even though Musk has the most money in the world, he has not committed to financially supporting the idea of a “high universal income.” And even if he split his $904 billion fortune among America’s 342.9 million people, each would only receive about $2,636. Instead, he believes the government should step in and distribute money directly to Americans.
“Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the federal government is the best way to combat unemployment caused by AI,” Musk said on X in April of this year.
Earlier this year, Musk also hinted that he would get rid of the vast majority of his fortune before he passed away. In response to Musk’s prediction of a post-wealth society, Nobel economist Daron Acemoglu wrote on X that this is a great “opportunity to walk the talk.”
Since money doesn’t matter to Musk, Acemoglu called on the former billionaire to donate his massive net worth over the next 10 years. Musk responds that he is “definitely going to do something along those lines.”
Gn headline
