Elon Musk on Monday announced his plans to give each child in the United States one share in his company, SpaceX, next year, which is on the order of about $10.66 billion.
Launched after a social media post on Sunday by AI firm Anthropic, who announced plans to sell 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund, the announcement was “a response to the public interest filing by Anthropic,” Musk said.
“The shares should be directly offered to the public,” Elon Musk said in his response voicing to the announcement made by Anthropic. He later assertions that the “SpaceX promise” would be “the first of many”, but detailed nothing else about how the distribution should be done.
SpaceX Pledge Could Be Worth $10.66 Billion
The likelihood of the value of Musk’s promise depends on both the child population of the United States, and on the SpaceX share price as reported. These children make up about 73 million of the total population in the United States, which works out to about $10.66 billion at today’s share price of $146.03.
SpaceX stock tumbled 19.5 percent to $146.03 at the close Friday, just ahead of a result call due Tuesday that would mark its first result announcement for the quarter. The final value of the proposed distribution could change depending on the share price and the arrangements for issuing or transferring the shares.
Musk has yet to give details of the children who would count, how it would be determined that certain children would count, or if the shares will be given directly or through another process.
Anthropic Announces Public Benefit Fund
Anthropic said that it would scrap 5 percent of its shares to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, a newly formed fundraising arm of the company. If the underlying stocks in the fund can appreciate in value, so can the fund.
But musk’s answer came from a different direction, suggesting a new plan to distribute directly to the public, not through a specific fund.
The notice has garnered attention due to how large the proposed giveaway will be, but there are some important questions that need to be answered. So far, the pledge has not contained the date of implementation, criteria for eligibility, or a concrete process for achieving it.