SpaceX shares climb despite Bandwagon-5 delay after Musk’s gift pledge to US children

SpaceX shares rose 1.5% in premarket trading on Monday despite the delay to its Bandwagon-5 mission, after CEO Elon Musk pledged to give one of his company's shares to every child in the United States next year. The stock traded near $148.27 before the open, up from Friday's close of $146.03. Musk announced the plan on X.

"Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many," wrote Musk.

There are roughly 72 million Americans under 18. At Friday's price, one share each would be worth a little over $10.5 billion. That is roughly 1% of Musk's estimated net worth of more than $900 billion, most of which is held in SpaceX and Tesla stock.

There are no details about the eligibility, age limits, citizenship requirements, and how shares would be delivered or how the gift would be funded. The company had no immediate comment on those questions

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The pledge followed an exchange with Anthropic over the AI company's plans to dedicate part of its equity to public benefit. Musk urged Anthropic to give shares directly to the public, then said that was what he would do himself.

It also comes amid scrutiny of technology companies' effects on society. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in July that she would gift a share to each of 2 million "Trump Accounts," a federal savings vehicle for children. That gift is now worth nearly $300 million.

The Treasury Department this month automatically enrolled millions of minors in the accounts. Children born from 2025 through 2028 are eligible for a one-time $1,000 government contribution.

SpaceX went public in June at $135 per share in the largest IPO on record. Musk holds about 42% of the shares but roughly 82% of the voting power.

Delay in Bandwagon-5

The Bandwagon-5 rideshare launch, which will carry multiple satellite payloads aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, was rescheduled to October 20. While the specific reason for the delay was not immediately disclosed, reports suggest it was rescheduled amid operational planning changes, with the US Federal Aviation Administration listing the revised launch window as October 20, from around 6.30 pm in local time and a backup opportunity on October 21. The specific reason for the rescheduling has not been confirmed in the cited reports, so it would be premature to attribute it to a technical fault or weather conditions.