Elon Musk and Anthropic make promises to give the public a piece of the AI pie

Elon Musk and officials at AI giant Anthropic are pledging to give coveted shares in their companies to the general public as concerns about AI’s economic and societal impact continue to pile up.

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

One SpaceX share is currently valued at about $150. With approximately 72 million children under the age of 18 in the U.S., Musk’s donation would currently be worth about $10.8 billion — less than 2% of his current net worth. He provided no additional information. Musk could not be reached for additional comment.

His statement comes one day after officials at Anthropic said the company would commit 5% of company shares to a “public benefit fund” in order to address “labor market impacts” of AI.In a statement, Anthropic officials said the fund could make charitable donations or direct money to “specific populations,” emphasizing the fund’s “versatility.”

“Given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed,” they said. Anthropic has been preparing for an initial public offering — releasing its stock for trading on public markets — that analysts say would value the company at more than $1 trillion. The company has long championed employees’ charitable giving by promising to match their donations.

Musk replied to Anthropic on X saying it should give shares “directly to the public.”

While evidence of AI’s impact on work so far remains mixed, a core premise underlying the current artificial intelligence investment boom is that it will make business processes vastly more efficient, including by eroding returns to human labor. That’s prompted fears about exacerbating income inequality and sparked worries of a “permanent underclass” forming throughout society. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has been at the forefront of such warnings, predicting that 50% of all white-collar work could be eliminated by AI before the end of the decade.

An Associated Press poll published last week found 64% of U.S. adults believe AI is developing “too fast,” with 8 in 10 saying the government should prioritize protecting the country’s workforce. A separate NBC News survey published last month found 70% of Americans are more worried than excited about AI, with a majority stating they would oppose construction of a data center in their neighborhood.

Notably, even before the advent of current advanced AI models, labor’s share of economic growth had been seeing precipitous declines. The Trump administration has sought to bridge some of that gap by seeding financial accounts for children born starting in 2025 with $1,000. Other high-profile business people have pledged additional amounts to the accounts, including SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, who along with her husband planned to give money to 2 million children in low-income areas, especially in Texas.

Musk has made numerous bold statements in his career only to subsequently not follow through on them. Among the most high-profile was his August 2018 announcement that he had “secured” funding to take Tesla private. The transaction failed to materialize and cost Musk his chairmanship of Tesla.