Musk and Anthropic seek to temper AI backlash with billion-dollar giveaways

Elon Musk and AI giant Anthropic have announced plans for multibillion-dollar public giveaways, as Silicon Valley faces mounting scrutiny over AI s impact on jobs and safety. Musk pledged on Monday to give every American child a share in SpaceX, in a giveaway potentially worth $10.5bn (£7.9bn), hours after Anthropic announced plans to put at least five per cent of its equity into a new public benefit fund. Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America , Musk wrote on X. This will be the first of many . The billionaire s announcement followed a public exchange with Anthropic, which said its fund could finance charitable donations and direct payments to people affected by AI-driven disruption. I recommend giving the shares directly to the public , Musk responded. This is what I will be doing . At SpaceX s closing share price of $146.03 on Friday, the proposed giveaway would hand roughly $146 (£109) in equity to each of America s estimated 72 mi