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Good morning. Should we celebrate billionaires donating shares in their companies? Elon Musk announced on X yesterday that he\u2019s going to give every kid under 18 in the U.S. a share of SpaceX next year. At $147.96 per share, that\u2019s about $10.7 billion worth of stock. (SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell pledged last week to give more than 2 million kids a share of her stock through a Trump Account.) Meanwhile, Anthropic co-founder and President Daniela Amodei announced that the company will commit 5% of its shares to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, a wholly owned LLC \u201cdedicated entirely to the public benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n
One reason for the sudden burst of generosity into Trump Accounts may be that the U.S. Treasury changed the rules on Sept. 30 to let individuals donate stocks that recipients must hold on to for at least five years. That could make donating stock much more attractive than giving cash to these accounts, which is how Susan and Michael Dell donated $6.25 billion last year. Stock donors can deduct the full market value of their shares without paying capital gains tax on the assets\u2019 growth. For founders sitting atop a mountain of stock, that beats selling shares, paying tax, and then giving away the cash. (Recipients will pay income tax when the stock is sold.)<\/p>\n
But there are downsides to letting donors gift their shares. For one thing, individual stocks are more volatile than an index fund and the five-year holding period means millions of shareholders can\u2019t sell if things go wrong. Conflict-of-interest rules may bar some workers and their families from holding certain stocks; the Treasury has moved to ban ESG funds from accounts, but there\u2019s no way for people to keep certain stocks out of their kids\u2019 accounts. Leaders may donate stock to curry favor in certain districts. Shotwell, for one, wrote on X that her shares will be dispersed with \u201ca bit more emphasis for those that live near our central Texas home,\u201d where SpaceX has faced lawsuits and protests. Imagine if every leader who donated money into the Trump Accounts instead donated shares that recipients had to hold for five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Anthropic, the motivation to put 5% of its as-yet-unissued shares in a fund may be more about building public support ahead of its $2 trillion IPO. But the proposed fund is an LLC, not a 501(c)(3) charity, which means Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei or other leaders can move and deploy the funds as they see fit. What constitutes a \u201cpublic good,\u201d after all, is in the eyes of the beholder. If all goes well, that could be a massive amount of capital in one fund, and still be too little to compensate for jobs lost to AI.<\/p>\n
Is it churlish to focus on what is inspiring these leaders to give instead of what their stock donations could achieve? Maybe. After all, many a good cause got its start from a spirit of noblesse oblige. But forced ownership of companies, however small that stake might be, usually happens in a crisis\u2014such as when the U.S. government took direct stakes in AIG, GM, Citibank, and other institutions during the financial crisis. This time, \u201cthe public\u201d is being forced to take a stake because billionaires can now dispense stocks like fairy dust into your kid\u2019s investment account.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are other ways to democratize investing and promote the public good. Some foresee a day when frontier labs could be regulated like public utilities with independent trusts, audits, and dividends that reflect the degree to which these companies draw on shared assets like energy and intellectual property. Then again, I can\u2019t imagine any CEO would want to be forced to put assets in a government-controlled fund they can\u2019t control. All the more reason for leaders to play the generosity sweepstakes in ways that are advantageous to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/p>\n
Top leadership news<\/p>\n
Nvidia depends on AI spending for nearly 92% of its projected revenue<\/p>\n
Morgan Stanley estimates that 91.7% of Nvidia\u2019s 2027 revenue will depend on demand for AI infrastructure. The bank still calls Nvidia the sector\u2019s best risk-reward opportunity but warns that financing pressures, power shortages, and concentrated customers could threaten the buildout.<\/p>\n
Former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging meetings stays in jail<\/p>\n
A federal judge ruled Monday that Abdulrahman Alfozan must stay in jail because he could be a flight risk, despite the Saudi government\u2019s offer to guarantee a $1 million bond. He hasn\u2019t been charged with espionage, and his lawyer denies prosecutors\u2019 claims that he planned to flee.<\/p>\n
Converse\u2019s sales slump adds to Nike\u2019s turnaround problems<\/p>\n
Converse sales fell 28% last quarter, accounting for 20% of Nike\u2019s sales decline despite making up just 2.5% of its revenue. Analysts blame the brand\u2019s reliance on Chuck Taylors and question whether Nike might sell it, though Nike says Converse remains an important part of its portfolio.<\/p>\n
The markets<\/p>\n
S&P 500 futures are down 0.17% this morning. The last session closed up 0.41%. The STOXX Europe 600 was down 0.65% in early trading. The U.K.\u2019s FTSE 100 was down 0.62% in early trading. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 was down 1.30%. South Korea\u2019s KOSPI was down 3.73%. China\u2019s CSI 300 was down 0.54%. Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng was down 1.32%. India\u2019s NIFTY markets are closed today. Bitcoin is down at $81k.<\/p>\n
Around the watercooler<\/p>\n
Prediction markets are now \u2018bespoke insurance\u2019 for businesses, and a Los Angeles restaurant group\u2019s $60,000 hedge on Kalshi is the latest example by Sasha Rogelberg<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s drones lose their Starlink link above 100 mph. Musk, Rubio, and Trump all say it wasn\u2019t them by Steven John<\/p>\n
\u2018An army of Claudes, with every one asking for my attention\u2019: Anthropic calls human attention the bottleneck in the botsitting world to come by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez<\/p>\n
Strategy buys another $22 million of Bitcoin, increases planned share buybacks by Camila Grigera Na\u00f3n<\/p>\n
CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.<\/p>\n
#Billionaires #giving #kid #stock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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