# Gerstner Sees Musk’s Pledge as Start of Wider Trump Accounts Giving

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/37476
Published: 2026-10-22T04:48:01.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-22T04:48:01.000Z
Section: Business

> Gerstner said he thinks he can raise $100 billion for children over the next 12 months. Musk has not defined who would qualify for his planned 2027 share gift or explained how it would be delivered.

Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner sees SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s planned 2027 share gift to children as a possible opening for broader giving through Trump Accounts. Gerstner said he thinks he can raise $100 billion over the next 12 months to sponsor children.

“Elon is the tip of the iceberg,” Gerstner said in an Oct. 21 interview. He expects Trump Accounts to serve as the vehicle for the effort. The $100 billion figure is his fundraising goal, not a confirmed pool of donations.

Musk posted Oct. 19 that he plans to give one SpaceX share to every “kid in America” in 2027, calling the plan “the first of many.” President Donald Trump said the proposed gift would go through Trump Accounts. Musk did not mention the accounts in his post, set an age or citizenship standard for recipients, or describe how children would receive the shares. Earlier coverage of the unresolved eligibility and delivery questions examined those gaps.

If the pledge covered all U.S. residents under 18, it would involve roughly 72 million shares. An estimate put that population at 72,021,348 on July 1, 2025, giving a possible scale for the pledge but not a confirmed distribution count. Musk has not said whether “kid” means every minor, U.S. citizens or another group.

Temporary rules permit publicly traded stock from domestic corporations only when the shares have no pre-existing transfer restrictions. For an individual to contribute, the transaction generally must go through an eligible donor, typically an organization under Section 501(c)(3). Each donation is designated for a defined beneficiary pool, and the resulting holdings generally stay in the accounts for five years or longer. Musk has not identified a donor or transfer plan, or confirmed that the shares he proposes to give would meet the rules.

The automatic-enrollment process had made accounts claimable for more than 60 million eligible children by Oct. 1. A parent or guardian must complete a claim before managing an account or allowing contributions. Trump Account eligibility requires a valid Social Security number and excludes children who turn 18 before the end of the year an account is opened. The separate $1,000 federal pilot contribution is limited to eligible U.S. citizens born from Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2028.

The program’s original default directed account money into an S&P 500 fund, while the stock-contribution rules also permit individual-company holdings.