Musk Pledges SpaceX Shares to U.S. Children in 2027, With Delivery Unspecified

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has pledged to give a company share to every “kid in America” in 2027, but he has not specified who qualifies or how children would receive it.

Musk said Oct. 19 he would give one of his SpaceX shares to “every kid in America” next year. The one-share pledge did not specify an age cutoff, eligibility criteria or a distribution date within 2027. His post also did not describe how children would receive the stock.

Musk’s post did not specify whether the gift would use Trump Accounts.

Trump Accounts are investment accounts for children. Treasury regulations effective Sept. 30 allow qualifying publicly traded shares issued by a domestic corporation to be contributed directly to accounts for a defined group of children. Under that process, an eligible government or nonprofit donor must have an agreement with Treasury.

Shares contributed through the process generally cannot be sold until five years after the contribution or the end of the child’s growth period, whichever comes first. That period ends Dec. 31 of the year the child turns 17. Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) identified greater portfolio concentration as a risk when an account receives stock instead of cash.

Parents can claim their children’s accounts through the program’s app or website. Musk’s pledge did not define which children would qualify.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and her husband made a separate, narrower pledge in July. They plan to give one SpaceX share through Trump Accounts to each of more than 2 million children ages 11 to 17 in areas with lower average household incomes, with added emphasis on children near their central Texas home. Their pledge did not give a dollar value or confirm that any shares had been transferred.

Musk has pledged to make his gift in 2027 but has not provided a distribution date within the year.