Elon Musk has splurged 10.5 billion US dollars, granting one share of SpaceX to each of the 72 million children across the United States.

Whoa! Kids all across the US are going to become SpaceX shareholders along with Elon Musk?!

The world's richest man Elon Musk, who is extremely wealthy and free-spending, suddenly posted on X:

Next year, I will give every single child in the United States one share of SpaceX stock that I personally hold!

There are roughly 72 million children under the age of 18 in the US. One share for each of them adds up to 10.5 billion US dollars, equivalent to about 74 billion yuan.

Moreover, Musk has specially left a little easter egg: This is just the first time, there will be plenty more benefits and gifts to come later~

As soon as the news came out, netizens in the comment section directly staged a "reverse aging" drama, all acting like they are under 18 in front of the stock —

Netizen A: If I am 27 years old in real life but think I am actually 8 years old, can I get the money? (Stunned)

Netizen B: Can I get the share if I pretend to be a kid? No other intentions, just asking for a few friends. (Laughing)

To be honest.

The plot in the movie *Hello Mr. Billionaire* where Wang Duoyu gathers a bunch of people to blow 1 billion yuan is way too conservative...

One share of SpaceX for every US kid, Elon Musk is prepared to give away 10.5 billion US dollars

First let's calculate how much money this big event "All kids in the US get SpaceX shareholder status" by Musk will cost in total.

According to data from the US Census Bureau in July 2025, there are approximately 72.02 million children under the age of 18 in the US.

As of the close of trading on October 16, the share price of SpaceX is 146.03 US dollars.

Assuming one share per person, Musk will have to take out roughly 72.02 million shares of SpaceX stock from his own position.

The total value adds up to 10.52 billion US dollars, equivalent to about 74 billion yuan, which averages 146 US dollars for each American kid, roughly 1000 yuan~

Now even before American kids learn how to read K-line charts, they already get the chance to share the ups and downs of SpaceX's stock price with Elon Musk...

To be honest, the amount of 1000 yuan is not that astonishing, but everyone should know a not-so-obscure little fun fact —

We all know that SpaceX is already a listed company with a market cap close to 2 trillion US dollars. Getting one share of SpaceX means you more or less get a ticket to ride along with Musk's business empire.

What's more, the value of this gift will change as the stock price fluctuates, it's hard to even imagine how good that could be!!!

But speaking of which, how much of a sum is 10.5 billion US dollars for the world's richest man Elon Musk?

According to public wealth estimates on October 19, Musk's personal net worth is around 900 billion US dollars. Calculated this way, the 10.5 billion US dollars he promised to give away only accounts for roughly 1.2% of his personal wealth.

What's even more outrageous is that we also need to check how many SpaceX shares he actually holds —

According to documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in August this year, Elon Musk directly holds about 4.77 billion shares of SpaceX stock.

Including other equity interests, his beneficial ownership covers roughly 6.42 billion shares, accounting for about 48.4% of the company's total shares.

If the plan is executed with 72.02 million shares in the end, the gifted shares this time only account for around 1.5% of his total direct shareholding.

So even after turning all kids across the US into SpaceX shareholders, Musk only loses a little over 1% of his own shares?!

But despite the grand promise, actually delivering more than 72 million shares to kids won't be that easy to operate.

First of all, Musk has actually not specified which children are eligible. There is no clear standard yet on whether "every child in the US" specifically refers to US citizens, or all minors living in the United States.

Moreover, how minors will hold these shares, who will manage them on their behalf, and how the relevant taxes will be handled all require further arrangements...

But... these are all issues for later. Right now, a large number of netizens have already stepped into the role of SpaceX shareholders in advance, and started thinking about the ownership of Mars.

For example, this user below expressed deep regret that he missed out on this benefit —

He said bluntly that he was born too early, otherwise he could own 0.000001% of Mars now! (Frustrated.jpg)

This netizen below even raised the perspective.

He said that every kid who owns a tiny part of SpaceX shares will look at every big rocket launch of Musk in a completely different way later.

Hey, that actually makes quite a bit of sense.

If you actually hold the shares later, watching the rocket ignite and lift off will definitely be from the perspective of a shareholder.

When the rocket launch succeeds: This is our company for real! When the rocket launch fails: Musk, you have to be responsible for my one share!!!

Anthropic just announced share donation, Musk immediately rolled out the national share distribution plan

The fact that Musk wants to give shares to every child in the US didn't come out of nowhere.

Because the day before Musk announced the share donation plan, Anthropic first dropped a public welfare gift package worth tens of billions of dollars.

Anthropic announced the establishment of a brand new public interest fund — the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund.

The first step it plans to take is to put 5% of the company's shares into the fund to support public interest projects.

Calculated based on Anthropic's valuation of about 965 billion US dollars in May this year, this 5% stake is worth about 48 billion US dollars.

And this is only the first contribution. (doge)

According to the published mechanism, every time Anthropic's valuation increases by 50% in the future, the board of directors can discretionally add up to 2% more shares to the fund.

When including the shares that founders and employees have previously promised to donate, Anthropic said that about 20% of the company's shares have been committed to public interest causes.

Anthropic also explained why it suddenly took out such a huge sum of money, which is related to the huge wealth that AI may create in the future —

As AI capabilities get stronger and stronger, the economic value created by enterprises keeps growing, but the job market may also be impacted...

This new fund has greater flexibility, it can provide large donations to traditional non-profit organizations, and can also distribute funds directly to specific groups of people.

Then we saw this dramatic scene: after seeing the news, Musk directly went to the comment section of Anthropic and left a suggestion:

I suggest distributing the shares directly to the public~

Just a few hours later, Musk announced the SpaceX share donation plan for all children across the US...

From another perspective, this tens of billions of dollars share donation by Musk is also a good deal for SpaceX itself.

We all know that SpaceX just went public in June this year.

Now Musk is preparing to let more than 72 million children across the US hold one share of SpaceX stock each, which is equivalent to developing tens of millions of potential long-term shareholders for a company that just went public not long ago in one go.

Moreover, every kid is connected to an American family behind them.

From watching rocket launches as bystanders to caring about the company's operations, Musk gets the chance to use roughly 1.5% of his personal direct shareholding to build long-term interest ties between tens of millions of American families and SpaceX.

Of course, this does not mean that small shareholders will definitely support the company. Failed rocket launches and falling stock prices may also make them raise more doubts about SpaceX.

But in any case, this kind of mass public shareholding plan can indeed bring SpaceX a long-term public relationship that ordinary advertisements can hardly build.

Of course, let's put aside the grand vision of wealth distribution for now.

Right now, the most concerned question for American kids is probably a very simple one —

Uncle Musk, where on earth can we get this 146-dollar share next year???

Reference links:

[1]https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2112089556615123114

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "QbitAI", author: Meng Yao, published with authorization from 36Kr.