Elon Musk announced this Monday, 19 October, that he plans to give away one share of SpaceX that he owns to every child in the United States in 2027. The promise targets a population of around 72 million children, although it does not yet constitute a completed transfer or a program with detailed terms.
The businessman made the announcement on X and suggested this would be the first of several distributions. His message refers to shares he owns in the aerospace company, not a cash payment to families.
Musk did not explain how the shares would be transferred or what the terms for receiving them would be. For now, the announced scope is limited to children in the United States: this is not an offer aimed at children in Mexico.
The estimated economic scale is around 10 thousand 500 million dollars, based on one share per child. That figure is a reference to the value of the shares, not an amount of money Musk has announced he will deposit; it would also depend on the share price at the time of any potential distribution.
The proposal has a precedent within SpaceX. Its president, Gwynne Shotwell, had announced a donation of shares for about two million children through so-called Trump accounts, investment vehicles with tax advantages for American children.
That mechanism is part of Shotwell’s initiative. Musk’s announcement did not specify that he would use those same accounts, so the two commitments should be distinguished: they share the intention of distributing SpaceX shares, but no common procedure has been confirmed.
Image: Elon Musk in a file photo from July 2018. Debbie Rowe / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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