Elon Musk announced that he will give shares of SpaceX to every child in America next year, following competitor Anthropic's donation of 5% of its shares to a fund aimed at easing the job displacement caused by AI.
Foreign news agencies reported on 19 Oct 2026 that Elon Musk, the world's richest billionaire and CEO of several major tech companies, announced he will give SpaceX shares to every child in the United States amid growing questions about the social impact of technology companies.
“Next year, I will give one SpaceX share to every child in America, and this will be the first of many times,” Elon Musk announced via X.
Currently, SpaceX is valued at about $2 trillion and recently went public in June, with the latest share price around $146 per share.
Meanwhile, there are approximately 73 million children under 18 in the U.S., making the total value of the shares Musk proposes to distribute about $10.7 billion. However, no clear details have been released yet on how the shares will be distributed or whether all children will be eligible.
Musk's move comes as large tech and AI companies face heavy public scrutiny and backlash over issues including AI system safety, human job displacement, environmental impacts from data center construction, and new documentaries and films exposing tech company practices.
Previously, AI competitor Anthropic announced it would donate 5% of its shares, valued at about $48 billion, to a public benefit fund to give back to society and mitigate AI's potential to replace human labor. Musk countered that shares should be given directly to the public, choosing to distribute them to children.
“I suggest shares should be distributed directly to the public... and this is what you will see me do,” Musk said via X.
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Source:cnn