SpaceX's President Is Giving 2 Million Lower-Income Kids $270 Million in SpaceX Stock Through Trump Accounts

The woman who runs SpaceX day to day is about to make roughly 2 million American teenagers part-owners of the rocket company.

"Robert and I are thrilled that our gift of over 2 million shares of SpaceX stock will be distributed to children's Trump accounts in December!" SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell wrote on X Friday afternoon. The shares, she said, are "transferring to escrow as we speak."

SpaceX stock closed Friday at $134.72 a share. At that price, 2 million shares come to about $269 million, and Shotwell said the gift is "over" 2 million shares, so the real number is higher.

Who gets the shares

The first batch. Kids ages 11 to 17 who live in ZIP codes where the median family income is $57,000 or less, plus kids in ZIP codes too small for the Census to report a median at all. "These families should receive a notice by Monday," Shotwell wrote.

The second batch, "in a few weeks." Eligible 11- to 17-year-olds in military families serving overseas, children in foster care, and more kids in Texas counties near the couple's home where the median family income is $90,000 or less.

Notice the age band. The two biggest deposits so far go to babies and young children. The Treasury's $1,000 seed is only for kids born from 2025 through 2028, and the Dells' $250 deposits go to kids 10 and under. The Shotwells aimed at the teenagers almost everyone else skipped.

When she first announced the pledge in July, Shotwell said it would reach around 2 million accounts, with "a bit more emphasis" on kids near her home in central Texas, CNBC reported. "We have been fortunate in our careers and hope this gift encourages the next generation to continue the journey of enabling humanity to live and fly amongst the stars," she wrote then.

What a Trump Account actually is

Trump Accounts were created by President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill. Under the IRS's own description, a Trump Account is "a new type of individual retirement account (IRA) for eligible children." A child qualifies with a valid Social Security number, as long as they won't turn 18 before the end of the year the account is opened. Treasury began automatically enrolling eligible kids on Oct. 1, according to the IRS. Treasury's own rulemaking expects the program to touch 73 million children in 44 million families.

Think of it as a piggy bank that's actually invested in the market, and that outsiders are allowed to fill. The key is a rule Treasury and the IRS finalized on Sept. 30. It lets a donor give stock to a whole group of kids at once, as long as every child in the group gets the same amount. That's how one family can reach 2 million children without writing 2 million checks.

There is a catch built in, and it protects the kids. Donated stock "may not be sold before the earlier of" five years after the gift or the end of the child's "growth period," which ends Dec. 31 of the year the child turns 17, under the Treasury rules. If shares get sold early anyway, the account's trustee has to buy the same number back.

The money keeps coming

The Shotwells aren't alone. Michael and Susan Dell committed $6.25 billion last December to put $250 into the accounts of 25 million kids, a gift the White House called "landmark." Brad Gerstner, the Altimeter Capital founder who helped spearhead the program, rallies donors through his group, Invest America. On Thursday, Frank Bisignano, the Social Security commissioner who also heads Trump Accounts, went back to the Brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up to announce a family gift for kids ages 2 to 8 in ZIP code 11234.

And the biggest pledge of all hasn't landed yet. "Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America," Elon Musk posted on Oct. 19. "This will be the first of many." That post has drawn more than 620,000 likes. With roughly 73 million kids in the country, one share each would be worth about $9.8 billion at Friday's price. His response to Shotwell's news was one word and a heart: "Cool ❤️"

The praise came fast. "Thank you @Gwynne_Shotwell and Robert for your extraordinary generosity!" Dell wrote. "Your gifts will expand opportunity, inspire dreams, and help strengthen America for generations to come!" Gerstner called them "American Heroes. Pioneers in space & in giving. Worked hard. Took risks. Lived simply."

On Saturday, Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick added his voice. "More Americans need an ownership stake in the great companies building our future," he wrote. "This is a huge investment in the next generation and the American Dream."

What families need to do

Being auto-enrolled isn't the same as being in control. To manage the account, a parent has to claim and activate it through the Trump Accounts app or website, the IRS says, and the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates have to match Social Security's records. Parents of kids born from 2025 through 2028 also have to elect the $1,000 government deposit on Form 4547.

Gerstner put it in eight words: "Claim your kid's account. Automatically get your shares."

What we still don't know

Shotwell hasn't said exactly how many shares are in the gift, how they split between the two batches, or which ZIP codes made the cut. She also hasn't published the record date that decides who counts as 11 to 17. Families in qualifying areas should know by Monday.

For a long time, a share of a company like SpaceX was something you could only get if you were already rich or already inside. Starting in December, a 12-year-old in a ZIP code where families get by on $50,000 a year can own a piece of the company landing rockets on drone ships. And it's coming through an account with the President's name on it.