Chicago knows what it looks like when a fortune gives part of itself back. John D. Rockefeller's oil money founded the University of Chicago in 1890. Marshall Field's department-store money built a natural history museum on the lakefront. This week the fortunes on offer were made in artificial intelligence, and the gifts came as stock.
On Sunday, Anthropic said it would commit 5% of its shares to a new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, pending stockholder approval. The fund could give to nonprofits and make "direct distributions to specific populations," and the company named job disruption from AI among the problems it may address. Anthropic said it would add 2% more at the board's discretion for each 50% rise in the company's value, so that "the more Anthropic grows, the larger the share of the company that can be dedicated expressly to the public good." The fund is barred from lobbying and political donations. Axios estimated the stake could be worth $100 billion or more. Anthropic, a public benefit corporation, is preparing an initial public offering that analysts expect to value it above $2 trillion.
Elon Musk answered the next morning. "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public," he wrote under Anthropic's post. Then he made his own offer: "Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many." At Friday's closing price of $146.03, one share for each of the roughly 72 million Americans under 18 would come to about $10.5 billion. Musk did not say whether "kid" means every minor or only citizens, how the shares would be delivered, or when. SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment, the Wall Street Journal reported. SpaceX stock, which began trading in June, is down about 35% from its post-IPO peak, so the value of any gift will rise and fall with the market.
Other tech fortunes have moved in the same direction. In December, Michael and Susan Dell committed $6.25 billion to put $250 into Trump Accounts, the federal investment accounts created by last year's tax law, for 25 million children 10 and under in ZIP codes where the median income is below $150,000. In July, SpaceX executive Gwynne Shotwell pledged one share to each of 2 million Trump Accounts, a gift now worth nearly $300 million. In January, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and the company's six other co-founders pledged to give away 80% of their wealth. "The thing to worry about is a level of wealth concentration that will break society," Amodei said then.
The pledges arrive as public unease grows. A new AP-NORC poll found 64% of Americans think AI is developing "too fast." Musk, meanwhile, has given more than $276 million since July to help Republicans hold Congress, making him the largest known donor of this year's midterms, the Associated Press reported.
For Chicago families, the numbers are concrete and the details are not. Chicago Public Schools counted 304,687 students this fall. A SpaceX share for each of them would be worth about $44 million at Friday's price, before counting children in private schools or too young to enroll. Parents of children 10 and under in eligible ZIP codes can already open a Trump Account to receive the Dell deposit. Musk's version has no sign-up, no eligibility rules and no date yet.
Rockefeller's university and Field's museum still stand on the South Side and the lakefront, more than a century after the checks cleared. Whether this round of giving leaves anything as lasting in Chicago depends on details the givers have not yet released.