Elon Musk says he'll give a SpaceX share to every child in America next year

SpaceX boss Elon Musk said Monday that he'll give every child in the U.S. one of his shares in the company next year.

Musk currently owns about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares, according to an August SEC filing. That figure rises to 6.4 billion when taking into account unvested awards and stock options, representing a 48.4% beneficial stake in the company.

There were 72 million children under 18 in the U.S. as of July 1, 2025, according to official census data.

That would amount to the CEO giving away about $10.5 billion worth of shares, taking into account SpaceX's closing stock price of $146.03 as of Friday.

"This will be the first of many," Musk said in a post on X, without providing further details on how the share giveaway would happen.

CNBC has reached out to SpaceX for further comment.

Musk's comments come hot on the heels of Anthropic revealing that it plans to commit 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund, with the stake potentially increasing as the company's valuation grows.

In response to an Anthropic post on X about the fund on Sunday, Musk replied, "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public," and added that's what he'd be doing.

Subject to shareholder approval, Anthropic's fund would immediately commit 5% of Anthropic's shares, with the board adding, at its discretion, an additional 2% for every 50% increase in the company's value above a set baseline that has yet to be disclosed.

The fund may be used to "explore large donations," including to traditional nonprofits or as direct distributions for specific populations, or for "bolder approaches" to study and address AI's disruption and displacement of jobs, the company said.

— CNBC's Jennifer Liu helped contribute to this report.