Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav One way Donald Trump plans to celebrate July 4th is by rolling out children’s savings accounts, known as Trump Accounts, and apparently, he’s been angling to get a big donation from SpaceX as part of that push.
A person familiar with talks involving the Trump administration told Semafor that SpaceX has spoken with US officials about donating stock to Trump Accounts. At this stage, however, it remains unclear if a donation will be made or what impact a SpaceX donation might have on the value of the accounts, which Trump hopes will be a defining part of his legacy.
So far, 6 million children have been signed up for Trump Accounts, which officially launch next week on Independence Day. Trump accounts are a new type of individual retirement account available to any child under 18 with a Social Security number, and parents can sign up their kids through a Trump Accounts app that’s already available for download. As an extra perk, any child born between 2025 and 2028 can receive a one-time $1,000 contribution from the government.
Although these accounts are subject to more restrictions and penalties than other kinds of IRAs, the Trump administration has hyped the creation of Trump Accounts as “the most historic policy for American families in decades.” The key benefit is the opportunity to receive more contributions beyond what families can afford to set aside, the Trump Accounts page said, explaining that families can contribute up to $5,000 annually, which can then “automatically be invested in American companies” that the government deems “proven winners.”
“The app lets you see exactly what stocks they own and how they’re performing,” the Trump Accounts page said, while playing on parents’ heartstrings by promising that “big things start with small steps.”
There have been some donations already, including $6.25 billion from billionaire Michael Dell and his wife, Susan. And Semafor reported that companies, including BlackRock and Bank of America, have agreed to match employee donations.
But the long-term outlook is murky, as insiders suggest that Trump is exploring public-benefit initiatives to combat growing anti-AI sentiment. As one option, sources told Semafor that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has favored creating a sovereign wealth fund seeded by leading AI firms. Bernie Sanders has suggested that move could give Americans more control over the AI industry.
Another option, sources told Semafor, is for the US to take equity stakes in AI firms, an idea Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly floated. Earlier this month, three sources told the news outlet NOTUS that senior US officials had already discussed “the potential for the federal government to acquire some shares in their firms.”
Those “discussions have centered on having the firms voluntarily cede the shares to the government,” NOTUS’s sources said, with any returns on investments then distributed to public purposes. That could look like “a dividend payment to all American households,” NOTUS suggested, or it could be invested to increase the value of Trump Accounts.
NOTUS’s sources did not reveal which AI firms were involved in discussions of voluntarily ceding equity stakes, but NOTUS confirmed that Anthropic was not among them.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to Ars’ request to comment on Semafor’s report.
Whether Trump can convince SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to donate to Trump Accounts remains to be seen. But Musk’s space technology company is intent on driving the kind of AI innovation that Trump himself has claimed could generate wealth for all Americans, starting at birth. This month, SpaceX completed its record-setting IPO and is now valued at $2.2 trillion due to its AI potential.
If SpaceX made a substantial donation to Trump Accounts, the gesture (and the dollar amount) could signal how far Musk is willing to go to win back Trump’s goodwill after a falling-out last year.
However, Musk may not be looking to play into the narrative that the public deserves to benefit from the success of leading technology firms. In a report on a brief dip in SpaceX’s stock amid rumors of an impending Trump Accounts donation, Yahoo Finance noted that Musk recently “pushed back against claims that government support helped build Tesla and SpaceX,” calling them “totally false.”
According to Musk, “every government incentive his companies ever received amounted to ‘less than 2 percent’ of the value of Tesla and SpaceX,” Yahoo Finance reported.
The Trump administration could also face obstacles beyond companies’ resistance to striking stock deals for public benefit. No one is sure what complications may arise from “the US trying to effectively regulate something it partially owns,” NOTUS reported, and such deals could “arguably” increase “incentives for a federal bailout.”
There may also be no legal mechanism yet “for any AI firm to turn over equity to the government,” NOTUS reported.
Nat Purser, a senior policy advocate for AI policy at Public Knowledge, told NOTUS that the public should be cautious in embracing policies that create “a situation where the government becomes less willing to impose, or enforce, safety rules because doing so could reduce the value of its own investment.”
“The problem is that the government would be a shareholder and a regulator at the same time, which creates substantial conflicts of interest,” Purser said.
Meanwhile, some parents have reported issues with using the Trump Accounts app. Several reviews in the Apple App Store complained that there is “no customer support” to help after errors blocked signups. One reviewer claimed the text message verification was broken. Others reached tech support but still became frustrated and felt they had to solve their own issues. One reviewer complained about the app crashing after “a clerical error when my IRS form was transcribed by the app, which I had to figure out without the assistance of tech support, which was polite but incompetent.”
While millions have enrolled their kids, not everyone is convinced that Trump Accounts will be “accessible for every household, ensuring that even our youngest shareholders can monitor their path to prosperity,” as the US Treasury has promised.
On Reddit, reactions to news of a potential Trump Accounts donation skewed negative, with hundreds of critical comments in a SpaceX thread. One commenter suggested that Trump Accounts “overwhelmingly” benefit “the wealthiest households,” by giving “free money” to kids whose parents already have the means to invest in IRAs.
“Most people don’t even have excess cash to set aside for their own future, let alone their children’s,” the Redditor said.
