Musk pledges shares to American kids days after flying car reveal

The world’s richest man has made a grand pledge to give one SpaceX share* to “every kid in America” just days after unveiling his company’s groundbreaking “flying car” of the future.

Head of SpaceXSI Elon Musk posted his plans on social media on Monday local time, following rival Anthropic’s announcement over the weekend that it planned to commit 5 per cent of its shares to a new fund for the “public good.”

Security breaches and safety concerns have seen public backlash against artificial intelligence* (AI) steadily grow as businesses across the world, including several large tech companies, cut thousands of jobs in favour of the new technology.

People have also opposed large-scale data centres* being built to power AI, arguing that the Earth’s precious resources would be better used to help people and planet.

While Anthropic pledged to distribute some of its wealth through non-profit donations and direct contributions to specific populations, Musk, the world’s richest person with a net worth*

of nearly $1 trillion, has said he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public” – in America.

“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many,” Musk said in a post early on Tuesday morning AEST.

Musk held about 6.42 billion shares in SpaceX as of June.

The potential value of Musk’s share giveaway would be worth roughly $11 billion at current share prices based on US census figures showing there are 72 million children in America.

In contrast, the estimated value of Anthropic’s initiative, which it said would give it flexibility and scale to make donations for the benefit of humanity, have been valued by financial experts to be within a range of $75 billion to $100 billion depending on its IPO*.

The move comes months after the White House launched “Trump Accounts,” a cradle-to-adulthood investment program that will provide US citizens born between 2025 and 2028 with a government-funded investment account of $1000 that families can build on.

TESLA’S FLYING CAR
Musk’s SpaceX share pledge comes after the company left an unforgettable impression as Tesla unveiled its next-gen roadster on Friday. SpaceX’s influence was unmistakeable: the car briefly took flight before “falling with style”, as Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear would say.

The Tesla boss revealed arguably his greatest car yet at the SpaceX Rocket Development and Testing Facility in McGregor, Texas, in the next-gen Roadster.

Pictures of a massive inverted skateboard-like ramp were leaked before the official launch.

The sleek futuristic white car fired up the steep ramp before driving upside down. With thrusters activated, it then spun around and flew through the air, throwing white smoke everywhere before landing majestically on the ground.

“You are going to see some crazy stuff tonight,” Tesla boss Musk said before the show kicked off.

“We need an audience to prove it’s not AI or SI*, so you can tell people you saw it with your own eyes”.

“Flying cars are real,” Musk declared after the car had done what no car had ever done before.

“Someone said to me a while back, the future promised us flying cars. Instead we got 140 characters*. Well, not anymore.

“It’s got altitude controls, thrusters and main thrusters in the rear. So it can basically fly like a rocket, it can do rolls, crazy gymnastics.

“I should say it’s not necessarily a safety optimised car but it takes the fun meter to 11.”

The new Roadster performed a series of feats during the live demo, which included flying over five Tesla vehicles, including the new Tesla semi.

The tech guru also held a live solo drag race of the car. Tesla’s official testers said it went from 0-100 km/hr in less than 1s – 0.81s, to be precise.

The feat makes it easily the fastest production car in history.

Engineers said the car’s top speed was around 370km/hr. Musk said he aimed for the car to eventually travel at half the speed of sound, or around 617km/hr.

The world’s first trillionaire said the collaboration was between his best engineers at EV giant Tesla and his rocket company Space X.

Tesla hasn’t revealed how much the car will cost, with Musk saying it will be “buyable”.

The car will enter production in 2028.

Minor edits have been made to this story for Kids News. Reuters reporting by Abu Sultan and Anusha Shah in Bengaluru with additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; editing by Edmund Klamann, Cynthia Osterman, Christian Plumb, Deepa Babington and Pooja Desai

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GLOSSARY

• share: a share in a company represents a partial ownership. Companies issue shares to raise money from investors to fund operations without needing to borrow money from the bank. Then shareholders own a very small slice of the business and can trade their shares on the stock exchange or earn money when their shares increase in value. They can also lose money when their shares go down in value. Some companies also pay out dividends to shareholders, which are a portion of the company’s profits
• artificial intelligence: AI, the ability for computer systems to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning and problem solving
• data centres: large warehouse facilities that house massive computer systems to power AI
• net worth: the total value of what a person owns minus what they owe in debt
• IPO: Initial Public Offering, when a company sells shares to the public on a stock exchange for the first time
• profitability: how efficiently a business turns its earnings into profit, which is the financial gain that remains once expenses are deducted
• SI: Super Intelligence, during a debate on the future of AI, Donald Trump directed US government agencies to start calling the technology SI instead of AI as a way of rebranding it to emphasise its competitive and transformative nature but the term has been met with criticism by some
• 140 characters: referring to early social media and messaging platforms, such as Twitter, which had a strict 140 character limit when it was launched. For many Gen Y people and older, some of the most transformative things that have defined “the future” have been digital devices like smartphones, the internet, social media platforms and the use of apps

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QUICK QUIZ
1. In what ways do Anthropic and Elon Musk’s plans to distribute wealth from AI differ?
2. Why do you think AI companies are looking for ways to share some of their wealth with the public?
3. What concerns do the public have over the rapidly growing technology of AI?
4. What are some of the amazing feats performed by Tesla’s new flying Roadster?
5. When will the Roadster start being produced?

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Design a car of the future
Tesla unveiled its new flying car set to begin production in 2028. Design your own car of the future to be released in 2040.

Sketch your design and address some of the following criteria;

• Energy source
• How it moves
• Passenger safety features
• Environmental impact
• Who could use it and where

Name and share your “car of the future” designs with your classmates.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Design and Technologies, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Which sharing of wealth strategy do you think is more beneficial – Elon Musk’s proposal or Anthropic’s proposal? Outline your reasons.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Mathematics, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
What happens next?
Imagine the full story turns out to be in three parts and this article is only Part One. Think about what the rest of the story could be and write the next two parts that tell the rest of this story.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Critical and Creative Thinking