Every child in the United States could obtain a share of SpaceX stock if billionaire Elon Musk makes good on his latest grand promise.
Musk, the world's richest man who founded the famous rocket company, took to social media to declare that "I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America" in 2027. The tech mogul's announcement came after Anthropic said it would commit 5% of its shares to a public benefit fund that will donate money to social causes.
The offer means that potentially tens of millions of children 18 and under could share in the profits of SpaceX, which has grown into a dominant force in the U.S. spaceflight industry.
Here's what we know so far.
Elon Musk pledges to give SpaceX share 'to every kid in America'
Musk on Oct. 19
posted on X, the social media site he owns, his plans to gift one share of SpaceX stock to every child in the U.S.
"This will be the first of many," he added.
Musk's pledge came after Antrhopic's own promise to commit a portion of its shares to a fund set up for "public benefit." In response to the company announced about the initiative on social media site X, Musk said "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public. This is what I will be doing."
Both offers come as AI companies face increasing public scrutiny over their products. (SpaceX own the artificial intelligence startup known as xAI, best known as the maker of the Grok chatbot.)
Approximately 73 million children under the age of 18 live in the United States, meaning Musk's giveaway would be worth nearly $10.7 billion base on SpaceX's current share price.
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
This will be the first of many.
Musk did not provide details on how the shares would be distributed. The USA TODAY Network left a message Monday, Oct. 19 with SpaceX for more information.
How much is a share of SpaceX stock worth?
A share of SpaceX stock is trading at about $146 as of Oct. 19, according to the Motley Fool, a financial and investing advice company based in Virginia.
SpaceX to share financial results
Musk's announcement also comes as SpaceX prepares to divulge its financial results Oct. 20 for the third quarter of 2026's fiscal year. The company recently went public in June when it debuted with arecord-setting initial public offering, trading on the Nasdaq Exchange.
We will post our Q3 2026 financial and operational results on October 20, 2026. We will host a live audio-only webcast at 3:30 p.m. CT the same day → https://t.co/PqK9HnyGyw pic.twitter.com/dls3x7s5uq
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 16, 2026
Does Elon Musk own SpaceX?
Musk, the world's richest man, founded SpaceX in 2002 with the expressed goal of developing spacecraft capable of transporting humans on interplanetary missions.
Musk also serves as the chief executive of SpaceX, headquartered at a company town known as Starbase in South Texas.
SpaceX also not only launches satellites into low-Earth orbit for its own internet venture known as Starlink, but holds lucrative contracts tasking the company with using its rockets to deploy payloads for commercial, civil and military customers from Florida and California.
SpaceX Starship reaches orbit for 1st time
SpaceX is also behind the design and development of what's now known as the world's largest rocket. Starship, which stands at more than 400 feet tall when fully stacked, is most prominently being developed to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface as part of NASA's Artemis moon missions.
Musk, though, also has dreams of Starship reaching Mars so that humans can colonize Earth's planetary neighbor and build self-sustaining cities.
Starship has undergone a series of test flights since April 2023 from Starbase, and most recently reached orbit at the end of September in a significant milestone during its 14th launch.
Contributing: Reuters
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elon Musk's pledge could give 73 million children SpaceX stock
