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SuccessBillionaires

Billionaire Elon Musk says he’ll give every kid in America shares of SpaceX next year—it’ll add up to over $10 billion in stock

Emma Burleigh
By
Emma Burleigh
Emma Burleigh
Reporter, Success
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Emma Burleigh
By
Emma Burleigh
Emma Burleigh
Reporter, Success
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 19, 2026, 10:32 AM ET
Elon Musk
Despite questioning if money will even matter in the future, Elon Musk is giving every U.S. kid a slice of his SpaceX fortune.The Hollywood Reporter / Contributor / Getty Images
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Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, said that he’ll give every U.S. kid a slice of his SpaceX fortune. And if he follows through on the promise, the entrepreneur would be shelling out over $10 billion to America’s children.

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“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” Musk wrote in a recent X post. “This will be the first of many.”

The 55-year-old worth $904 billion currently owns about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares, according to an August SEC filing. (When considering his unvested awards and stock options, the number rises to 6.4 billion.) That means that America’s roughly 72 million children under the age of 18 would each get one share currently worth $146.03, per SpaceX’s closing stock price on Friday. In total, kids in the U.S. would receive a whopping $10.5 billion worth of the aerospace company’s stock. And that eye-popping giveaway would barely dent his holdings—giving away 72 million shares would lower Musk’s SpaceX share count by just 1.5%.

The serial founder didn’t share more on the timeline or details of his proposed plan. His pledge comes amid a larger push to build wealth for children in America; earlier this month, the Treasury Department automatically enrolled millions of U.S. kids in Trump Accounts, a new federal savings and investment vehicle providing a one-off $1,000 government contribution.

Yet the billionaire’s own predictions suggest that money—and by extension, the monetary value of SpaceX stock and investments—could become meaningless in the very future these children will inherit.

Fortune reached out to SpaceX for comment. 

Musk questions if ‘money will even matter’ in the future 

Musk’s proposal followed right after Anthropic announced plans to commit 5% of its shares to a new “public benefit” fund, of which the Tesla founder responded on X, saying: “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public.” His call to distribute shares directly to the public comes amid his predictions that AI could fundamentally reshape the relationship between work, wealth, and money.

The SpaceX CEO foresees that AI and robots will usher in an “age of abundance” where tech does most of the work, potentially reducing the need for people to earn a living. Everything from childcare to white-collar work will be automated, and Musk has said that tools will make more goods and services available than people would possibly need. Without any humans working conveyor lines or filling up office floors, the concept of money will become moot in an AI future, he believes. 

“My prediction is that there will be effectively universal high income,” Musk said in an interview last month with state-owned China Media Group. “In fact, it’s not clear to me that money will even matter in the future.”

While Musk has the most money in the world, he hasn’t pledged to financially back the idea of “universal high income.” And even if he split his $904 billion fortune among the 342.9 million people living in the U.S., each person would only receive roughly $2,636. Instead, he believes that the government should step in and distribute money directly to Americans.

“Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI,” Musk posted to X April of this year. 

Earlier this year, Musk also hinted at offloading the vast majority of his fortune before his passing. In response to Musk’s post-wealth society prediction, Nobel economist Daron Acemoglu wrote on X that it’s a prime “opportunity to put your money where your mouth is.” 

Since money won’t matter in Musk’s eyes, Acemoglu called on the former trillionaire to donate his massive net worth within the next 10 years. Musk responds that he is “actually going to do something along these lines.”

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About the Author
Emma Burleigh
By Emma BurleighReporter, Success

Emma Burleigh is a reporter at Fortune, covering success, careers, entrepreneurship, and personal finance. Before joining the Success desk, she co-authored Fortune’s CHRO Daily newsletter, extensively covering the workplace and the future of jobs. Emma has also written for publications including the Observer and The China Project, publishing long-form stories on culture, entertainment, and geopolitics. She has a joint-master’s degree from New York University in Global Journalism and East Asian Studies.

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