Elon Musk’s £8bn pledge to give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in America

By ANGHARAD CARRICK, BUSINESS NEWS EDITOR

Elon Musk has pledged to give one SpaceX share to ‘every kid in America’ next year in a move that would cost him around £8billion.

The billionaire Musk currently owns about 4.8billion SpaceX shares, priced at $146 a share based on Friday’s closing price.

In a post on his social media platform, X, Musk said: ‘Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many.’

He did not provide further details on how the scheme would work or how it would be paid.

If his plan goes ahead, it will see Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, hand over stock worth around $10.7billion, or £8.1billion, to the approximately 73 million children in the US.

SpaceX boss Elon Musk has offered to give one share to every child in Ameirca

His offer comes after artificial intelligence firm Anthropic announced plans to commit 5 per cent of its shares to a new ‘public benefit’ fund.

The Claude chatbot developer could make ‘large donations’ to non-profit organisations or ‘direct distribution to specific populations,’ it said.

In response to the announcement, Musk said: ‘I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,’ before following up with, ‘This is what I will be doing.’

It follows a move by the US Treasury Department to automatically sign up millions of under-18s to so-called ‘Trump Accounts’, with children born between the start of 2025 and the end of 2028 eligible for a one-off $1,000 government contribution.

SpaceX will report its earnings this week but concerns remain over its spending on AI

Musk’s surprise announcement comes ahead of SpaceX and Tesla’s third quarter earnings reports on Tuesday.

SpaceX, which made its blockbuster market debut in June, is expected to report revenues of $12.74billion, up from second-quarter revenue of $7.8billion.

Crucially, investors will be watching whether a surge in the firm’s AI spending will convert into revenue amid broader concerns over huge capital spending in the sector.

So-called ‘hyperscalers’ are pouring historic sums into infrastructure, including in data centres and chips, but sceptics say revenue and productivity gains may not scale fast enough, drawing parallels with the dot-com bubble.

SpaceX shares have come under pressure in recent weeks following significant volatility since its blockbuster IPO four months ago.

Meanwhile, Tesla is on track to increase deliveries for the first time since 2023, with analysts expecting the car firm to report revenue of about $27.88billion.

It has said capital spending will exceed $25billion this year, and its shares are down about 17 per cent this year.

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