Musk Promised Every American Kid a SpaceX Share Hours After Telling Anthropic to Give Directly to the Public

Elon Musk spent Sunday night turning a rival AI lab's charity announcement into a contest. Overnight into Monday, he posted on X that "next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many." Then he pinned it.

At SpaceX's current price of about $146 a share, that gift would be worth more than $10 billion, an estimate based on the more than 70 million children under 18 living in the US. PCMag puts the count at 72 million, using 2025 Census data. Either way, it is a staggering number of shares for one man to hand out.

A reply to Anthropic

The pledge did not come out of nowhere. On Sunday, Anthropic announced a new Public Benefit Fund. That afternoon Musk replied directly to the company's post: "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public." Four hours later he added, "This is what I will be doing." About seven hours after his first reply, the SpaceX promise arrived.

So far, there are no details. Musk has not explained how the shares would reach children, whether there would be exceptions, or how the plan would be paid for. He did not respond to a request for comment. One route already exists: the Treasury now runs bank accounts for children called Trump Accounts, which can accept stock donations from wealthy donors. Musk spent around $300 million helping elect President Donald Trump. But nothing he has said ties his pledge to those accounts.

What Anthropic actually announced

Anthropic's plan is more structured. In its announcement, the company said that, subject to stockholder approval, it will commit 5% of its shares to the fund now. The board can add another 2% for every 50% increase in the company's value above a set baseline.

The money might go to "large donations to traditional nonprofits or direct distributions to specific populations." Anthropic pointed to the labor market impact of AI as an example. It has already committed $200 million to studying that, "but given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed."

The fund is a wholly owned LLC rather than a 501(c)(3), which Anthropic says gives it flexibility. None of the equity will be used for lobbying or political giving. The company framed the whole thing as a swipe at standard tech pay: "It is common practice for tech companies to offer escalating compensation awards to their executives. We are instead directing that equity to the public benefit."

Add the co-founders' pledge to donate 80% of their equity and an employee donation match that about half of staff use, and roughly 20% of Anthropic's shares will be dedicated to the public good. Governance details are promised in the coming months.

The timing matters. The AI industry faces souring public sentiment, which CEO Dario Amodei has called "fundamentally a crisis of trust." Anthropic is also exploring an IPO, with estimates suggesting it could be worth over $1 trillion. That IPO has already drawn political heat, including when a Trump-allied senator told Amodei to stop warning about AI. Anthropic has not publicly responded to Musk.

Small change for Musk

For all its size, the SpaceX gift would be roughly 1% of Musk's $1 trillion net worth. He owns around 849 million Class A common shares of SpaceX, which has become his combined spaceflight and AI company, plus more than 5.5 billion Class B supervoting shares.

His past giving also invites scrutiny. Musk donates almost entirely through the Musk Foundation, now the fifth-largest private charitable foundation in the US, despite his openly negative views of philanthropy. A recent Economist review found most of the money it has paid out went to entities tied to Musk in some way. Nearly 60% went to another charity, The Foundation, run by his money manager Jared Birchall.

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