Elon Musk Pledges One SpaceX Share to Every American Child, Who Are Advised Not to Spend It Yet

THE TRADING FLOOR (MY KITCHEN) — I woke up at 4 a.m. Monday, did my push-ups, checked my phone, and learned that every child in America is about to become a SpaceX shareholder. I immediately called my nephew. He is six. He did not pick up, because it was 4 a.m.

Elon Musk said Monday that he will give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in the U.S. next year. “This will be the first of many,” he wrote in a post on X. He did not say how the giveaway would work, which in my business we call “a roadmap.”

Let us run the numbers, because I already did, twice, in the shower. There were about 72 million Americans under 18 as of July 2025, according to census data cited by CNBC. SpaceX closed Friday at $146.03 a share. That puts the gift at roughly $10.5 billion.

That sounds like a lot. Musk owns about 4.8 billion SpaceX shares, according to an August filing, or 6.4 billion counting unvested awards and options. Seventy-two million is about 1.5 percent of the 4.8 billion. He will be fine. He may not even notice. I notice when I lose a quarter in the couch.

Brad Gerstner, the founder of Invest America and Altimeter Capital, suggested on X that the shares could go out through Trump accounts. “This will be the largest philanthropic gift in history!” he wrote. I agree, and I want to note for the record that I have been saying “largest gift in history” about my own podcast for three years.

Some analysts point to the follow-through. In 2021, Musk said he would give $6 billion to the United Nations World Food Programme if it showed him a plan to solve world hunger. The WFP posted a plan. Musk did not donate. He also promised OpenAI up to $1 billion and gave about $38 million, according to CNBC.

I read that history very differently. A man who has already announced $7 billion in gifts and delivered $38 million has enormous room to grow. That is not a broken promise. That is a pipeline.

So here is my advice to America’s children. Do not spend your share yet. Do not trade it for a juice box. Hold it. Diversify into a second share if you can, perhaps by having a sibling. And whatever you do, do not put it in crypto. My crypto portfolio is down 98 percent, which I consider basically up, but I am an adult and I have made my choices.

I asked my financial adviser, who is my podcast co-host, who is also me, whether I qualify. I am 34. He said no. I said I identify as a long-term investor. He said that is not an age.

My nephew finally called back at 9. He wants to know if the share comes with a rocket. I told him it comes with something better: exposure. He hung up. Bullish.