Elon Musk says he will give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in America in 2027. With more than 70 million Americans under 18 and SpaceX shares trading at about $146, the gift would be worth more than $ 10 billion, about R168 billion. Musk said it would be the "first of many" share donations. He has not explained how it will work.

Here is what the pledge adds up to, at a share price of about $146 and an exchange rate of R16.46 to the dollar. Share prices move daily, so treat these as estimates.

So the gift equals about 0.5% of SpaceX's total value. SpaceX's market value implies roughly 13.6 billion shares across all classes, and Musk owns about 849 million Class A shares plus more than 5.5 billion Class B supervoting shares, roughly 6.35 billion in total. Giving away 70 million of them is about 1.1% of his SpaceX holding, and about 1% of his net worth.

Each child would get one share worth about R2,400, which is small per person but would make tens of millions of Americans SpaceX shareholders.

The route is unclear: US President Donald Trump has set up Treasury-run accounts for children, called Trump Accounts, that can accept stock donated by wealthy donors, which is one possible channel. The pledge came hours after Anthropic announced it would put 5% of its shares into a public benefit fund.

Musk replied to Anthropic on X that it should give its shares directly to the public instead, adding, "This is what I will be doing," before posting his plan overnight.

TechCrunch's Sean O'Kane worked out the value of the pledge and noted Musk had not responded to requests for comment on how it would be done. He also pointed to The Economist's review of the Musk Foundation, the fifth-largest private charitable foundation in the US, which found that most of the money it has given out has gone to entities tied to Musk, with nearly 60% going to a charity run by his money manager. SpaceX's share price and market value are tracked on its Nasdaq listing.

The pledge is generous in size and cheap relative to Musk's wealth, and it is also good business. One share each costs him about 1% of his fortune and turns a generation of American children into SpaceX owners who will watch its share price, its launches and its founder for years.

It is a different idea from Anthropic's public benefit fund, which keeps the money inside a company-run vehicle that decides where it goes. Musk's version hands the asset directly to people, though so far it is a post on X rather than a plan, and his foundation's record suggests waiting for the details.

And a small thought from home. Musk grew up in Pretoria, and South Africa has about 21 million children under 18. Giving each of them one share would cost about R50 billion, less than a third of the American gift. Then again, SpaceX's Starlink still cannot get a licence to operate here, so perhaps South Africa should not hold its breath.

You might also like our piece on Starship reaching orbit, Tesla's flying Roadster, and Squirrel Away making investing a gift for kids.

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