Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said he will give one share of SpaceX stock to every child in the United States next year. SpaceX had earlier donated one share each to more than 2 million low-income American children through the Trump Accounts program. The plan widens the pool of recipients from low-income children to all children in the country.
Musk posted the announcement on the 19th on X, the social network he owns that was formerly Twitter. "Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every child in America," he wrote. "This will be the first of many." The earlier donation to low-income children was disclosed by Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and chief operating officer.
The share grant carries echoes of shareholder returns. Because Musk described it as the "first," similar transfers of wealth could follow. Forbes puts his net worth at about $977.2 billion, the largest in the world.
Analysts also see the plan as aligned with Trump Accounts, the children's fund that U.S. President Donald Trump, whom Musk supports, has been promoting during his term to help children build assets over the long run.
Under Trump's design, parents or guardians can open an account in the name of a child under 18, and family members, companies and charities can contribute up to set limits, with the aim of building wealth over the long term.
Details of how the shares will be distributed and what eligibility rules will apply have not been settled. By handing out SpaceX stock, Musk could give millions of American children their first exposure to the stock market.
Separately, major investment banks including Barclays have raised the possibility that Tesla and SpaceX could announce a merger either before Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in December or sometime next year. Prediction markets in the financial industry raised the odds of a merger before March of next year to 56% from 29%. Dan Ives, a partner at Yorkville Ives, put the probability of a merger by the end of next year at 80%. In a media interview in June, shortly after SpaceX went public, Shotwell said there was "no doubt that there would be synergies between the two companies," adding that a merger "would make Elon's life a little bit easier."