Elon Musk took to X on Monday to make a shocking declaration:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many.
He might just be crazy enough to not only mean it in the moment but actually go through with it as well.
His ego is at least on the line considering how he made the pledge not long after rival artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic said it would commit an initial 5% of its shares to a new public fund. And that amount could grow as the company does.
“For every 50% increase in the company’s value over a set baseline,” it noted, “we can contribute up to an extra 2%, subject to our board’s discretion.”
Musk then responded directly to Anthropic’s post with, “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public. This is what I will be doing.”
And, as he indicated the very next day, he’ll be doing it in style.
There were 72 million+ children under the age of 18 here in the U.S. as of last July. That’s according to official Census data, and I have to imagine that number has grown since then. Certainly, I have two new grandchildren with 2026 birthdates.
Now, in not atypical Musk-like fashion, he hadn’t given any further details at last check.
However, if we did go with last year’s minimum 72 million, at Monday’s closing price of $149.23, that would amount to more than $10.74 billion of SpaceX (SPCX) stock.
That’s a lot of money for most of us. But I guess when you’re the world’s richest man with a net worth of at least $924.8 billion, what’s $10 billion between friends?
Green pollution
I’ve said good things about electric vehicle (EV) advancements before, and I’ll say them again. But that admiration and investment-specific curiosity doesn’t mean we shouldn’t acknowledge their negatives as well as the positives.
As I’ve also said before – time and time again, in fact – there’s no such thing as a perfect asset. In the case of EVs, there are several concerns that need to be addressed. And one of them is the fact that they can be quite the fire hazard.
A Cadillac dealership in Fort Worth, Texas, just learned that the hard way when one of its luxury SUVs caught fire. The incident is still under investigation, so we don’t know how it started. And you can’t necessarily blame the fact that it spread to multiple other models on the EV factor either.
In fact, gas-powered cars have a much higher rate of catching fire than the eco-friendlier alternatives. The problem is what happens after they do.
For example, it took almost 18 hours to put out the Cadillac inferno. After it was over, the Fort Worth Fire Department commented on X that:
Electric vehicles are more complex to battle versus the ordinary gas/diesel vehicles that we are all familiar with.
One of the issues with electric vehicles is that they have the potential to burn much hotter than an average fire. The batteries of these vehicles are built to be completely sealed off. That is incredibly helpful when trying to protect the vehicle from daily driving conditions (etc.). But it presents a complex set of issues for firefighters when they are attempting to extinguish these fires. The vehicles are deliberately built not to let water in.
Firefighters had to be rotated out every two hours for their own safety, but nobody was hurt in the incident. And I’m sure the dealership is insured.
Still, it goes to show you that there’s more to explore and improve on with this technology before we can sit back and call it a sure-thing success.
Santa Claus could still come to town
Even in the middle of elevated rates that could become more elevated still, consumer fatigue, and the ongoing war in Iran, Goldman Sachs (GS) strategist Ben Snider still sees further upside for the S&P 500 this year.
He’s sticking with his previous call for the index to hit 8,000 by the end of December. In which case, we’re in store for stocks to rise another 5%.
And then, for 2027, he thinks it will rise again (though not by as much) to 8,700. The way he sees it:
Positive but decelerating growth has historically been associated with positive but moderating S&P 500 returns. Equity returns in these environments have historically been driven by earnings growth rather than by valuation expansion.
Clearly then, he’s not concerned about the artificial intelligence (AI) bubble popping. And guess what?
He’s not alone. While not everyone is calling for the S&P 500 to hit 8,000 in the next two months (and one week), most of the highly respected, big-name market analysts are maintaining optimistic outlooks on equities.
And yes, they’re acknowledging the risks in the process. It’s kind of impossible not to these days.
While I hardly believe in basing every stock action or non-action off of analyst opinion, I do hope this news offers some encouragement. The bigger investment picture isn’t as bleak as some are trying to say.
Even if it was, there would still be worthwhile opportunities to act on. There always are when you’re willing to drown out the noise and have some cheer that Santa Claus can still come to town after all.
Happy SWAN investing,
Brad Thomas
Editor, The Wide Moat Daily
