Musk pledged $10.5 billion in SpaceX shares to American children, while Anthropic's proposed 5% public-benefit stake could be worth $100 billion.

Elon Musk pledged to give American children over $10 billion in SpaceX shares, offering millions of families ownership in his AI technology empire.

On Oct. 19, the world's first trillionaire announced he would distribute one personally owned SpaceX share to every child in the United States in 2027, potentially creating about 72 million new shareholders.

At SpaceX's Oct. 16 closing price of $146.03, the proposed distribution would represent roughly $10.5 billion in equity, making it one of the largest individual philanthropic commitments in recent years.

The announcement followed AI developer Anthropic's proposal to commit 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund, subject to shareholder approval. At the firm's current valuation of around $2 trillion, that would be $100 billion.

The company could increase that allocation by another two percentage points for every 50% increase in its valuation above a specified baseline. However, this is at its board's discretion.

Anthropic intends to use the fund for charitable donations, direct distributions to selected populations and initiatives addressing AI-related job displacement. Including existing employee and founder pledges, the company estimates that roughly 20% of its equity would be dedicated to public benefit.

Musk responded to the proposal by recommending that companies distribute shares directly to the public before announcing his own commitment, which he described as the first of several planned giveaways.

President Donald Trump endorsed Musk's pledge, saying the shares would be distributed through Trump Accounts, a federally established investment program designed to help American children accumulate long-term wealth.

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