Gwynne Shotwell is giving away over 2 million SpaceX shares. Her husband Robert is in on it too. They are "thrilled," she wrote on X. Exclamation point included.
The recipients are kids aged 11 to 17. They live in ZIP codes with median family income of $57,000 or less. The government gave them no seed money. Now they get a rocket company.
SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 a share in June. Shotwell is handing these children a stock that grown professionals with Bloomberg terminals have been arguing about since summer. A twelve-year-old in an eligible ZIP code will soon own a piece of orbital data centers. He still can't buy a lottery ticket.
The shares are in escrow. Shotwell says they're transferring "as we speak." Somewhere a lawyer at Morgan Lewis or Gibson Dunn is billing six minutes for the word "speak."
Families get a notice Monday. Then they check eligibility through Invest America and track the account in the Trump Accounts app. Your kid now has a brokerage app. He will check it during math class. He will learn what a red candle is before he learns long division.
A second gift is coming for military kids overseas, foster children, and some Texas counties. Elon Musk separately pledged one share to every American kid. Everyone is giving children stock. Nobody is asking the children if they wanted exposure to a Tesla merger committee.
The account turns into a retirement account at 18. That is the plan. A teenager holds a volatile aerospace equity for seven years, through every rumor, every Musk post, every Tuesday. Most adults can't hold a position through lunch.
Retail traders should study this carefully. A fifteen-year-old with zero screen-time limits and free shares will outperform you. He won't know why. Neither do you.
Shotwell gave kids stock. You gave a stranger on Reddit your rent money. The kids are ahead.
Photo by Sven Piper on Unsplash
Leave a Comment