Business

Elon Musk Wants Every Kid To Have a Piece Of His Trillion-Dollar Empire

Screenshot/YouTube/CNBC

The world’s richest man says he will hand every kid in America a piece of his rocket company, but he has not said how the gift would work.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pledged to give one share of the company to every child in the U.S. next year, he said in a Monday X post. Musk made the pledge after telling rival AI company Anthropic to give its own shares “directly to the public” in an X post on Sunday.

“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many,” the trillionaire wrote early Monday morning on X.

The gift could be worth approximately $10.5 billion if he gives all 72 million U.S. children a share of SpaceX at roughly $146.03 each, CNBC reported. SpaceX has a market capitalization around $2 trillion.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell pledged on July 6 to give a share of the company to each of the 2 million Trump Accounts, CNBC reported.

“Incredible Elon! This will be the largest philanthropic gift in history!” Brad Gerstner, Altimeter Capital CEO and founder of Invest America, said on X in response to Musk’s comments. “[Seventy] M accounts – every citizen under 18 & every child born forevermore now has a free, lifetime investment acct making them an owner in the upside of America & our greatest companies!”

SpaceX and the Treasury Department each did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

Musk did not say whether he would use Trump Accounts for this giveaway. Under temporary the Treasury Department and IRS rules that began on Sept. 30, the accounts can accept individual stock donations.

Regulators warn that account holders “will bear some additional risk in the form of increased portfolio concentration,” according to temporary Treasury regulations. Donated shares “must generally be held for five years.”

Directly donating shares also lets wealthy shareholders avoid capital gains taxes, CNBC reported.

Gerstner’s Invest America pitched the idea of Trump accounts to Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in 2024 as an opportunity to give children investment accounts, the Texas Tribune reported. Trump Accounts are government-run investment accounts created for every child under 18 with a Social Security number.

Musk separately warned that advanced AI could be compelling enough to win over the masses, and perhaps even himself.

“So many people are going to get one-shotted by super persuasive super intelligences and I might be one of them,” Musk said on X early Monday morning.