Michael and Susan Dell Commit $6.25
Billion to Fund Investment Accounts for 25 Million
Children
The tech billionaire and his wife hope other
philanthropists follow their $6 billion lead in expanding the reach of soon-to-be-created
“Trump accounts.”
Tech
billionaire Michael Dell and his wife, Susan Dell, announced a major
philanthropic initiative to deposit $250 into investment accounts for 25
million U.S. children, totaling $6.25 billion.
The contribution will expand access to newly created “Trump accounts”,
which already provide $1,000 from the federal government to babies born
between 2025 and 2028. The Dells’ donation widens eligibility to
children up to age 10 in ZIP codes with median household incomes below $150,000.
The
program aims to help families build long-term wealth, with investments required
to be placed in low-cost index funds until children turn 18.
Employers may also contribute up to $2,500 per year tax-free, and
several companies have pledged to match the government’s initial $1,000
deposits.
The
initiative, originally proposed by investor Brad Gerstner and later advanced
with bipartisan support, gained momentum after backing from President Trump and
congressional champions like Senator Ted Cruz.
With this
gift—one of the largest ever made directly to American households—the Dells
hope to inspire more philanthropists, corporations, and governments to invest
in children’s financial futures. They have indicated the program may expand
further if funds remain after initial participation.
Michael
and Susan Dell announced on Tuesday that they would deposit $250 in individual investment
accounts for 25 million children, an amount totaling $6.25
billion. It is one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever to go directly to Americans.
The
money expands the number of children who will receive seed money for the investment
accounts, known as “Trump accounts.” The federal government will give $1,000 to
babies born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028. The Dells’ gift extends to
children up to 10 years old, though it limits eligibility to those who live in a
ZIP code where the median household income is below $150,000.
At
a press event at the White House on Tuesday, President Trump, standing with the
Dells, called the couple “two special people” and said the accounts were “real trust
funds for every American child.”
The
federal government is expected to set up the accounts next summer, but many details
of how they will work are still to be determined. There is no system in place yet
for registering, and it is unclear where the accounts will reside.
Mr.
Dell, the chairman and chief executive of Dell Technologies, first made his fortune
by selling personal computers directly to consumers rather than through retail outlets.
He sees this gift in a similar light.
“When
I started a company 41 years ago, we created the direct model,” Mr. Dell said. “This
is sort of the direct model philanthropy.”
The
Dells hope that other philanthropists, corporations, and state and local governments
will follow their example, pumping billions more into the accounts. The approach
could become a model for wealthy donors who want to give away money but have not
set up foundations and don’t know where to begin vetting recipient groups.
The
idea for what became the Trump accounts started with a dining-room table conversation
among Brad Gerstner, the chief executive of Altimeter Capital, and his children
in 2021. Mr. Gerstner set up a nonprofit, Invest America, to push for the creation
of accounts in which the federal government would give $1,000 to each child when
born. He called Mr. Dell, a friend, shortly thereafter. The Dells were enthusiastic
about the idea.
Mr.
Gerstner reached out to the Biden administration and both Democrats and Republicans
on Capitol Hill to build support, but the initiative did not gain traction until
Mr. Dell spoke to President Trump this year. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas,
introduced a bill to create the Invest America accounts. The name was changed to
Trump accounts in the final version of the tax bill passed this year.
Mr.
Dell and Mr. Gerstner emphasized that the idea for child savings accounts had bipartisan
support. “If you look at what we’re doing, I don’t think this is in any way a partisan
activity,” Mr. Dell said. “It’s certainly not intended to be.”
But
if the program becomes a success, it will burnish an effort that bears Mr. Trump’s
name.
“We’ve
always made our focus to getting the support as close to families as possible, and
Invest America continues that work,” Ms. Dell said in an interview. “This is a slightly
different way of doing this, but the opportunity now is to do something really major
and really touch 25 million children that will really benefit from this in a huge
way.”
If
money is left over after the initial sign-ups, the Dells said, they may extend it
to children older than 10.
As
philanthropists, the Dells have largely flown under the radar compared with names
like Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott. But according to Ms.
Dell, the couple has given $3 billion over the past 26 years, mostly to children’s
causes. Tuesday’s commitment would vault them into the ranks of the nation’s top
givers.
There
have been a handful of larger gifts by philanthropists, like Mr. Gates’s $20 billion
donation to his foundation in 2022. But those billions filter out from the foundations
over many years or even decades through grants to nonprofits.
Similarly,
Warren E. Buffett has donated billions of dollars in Berkshire Hathaway stock annually
since 2006 to the Gates Foundation and foundations run by his children, also to
be distributed over time to nonprofits.
In
August, the Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, announced a $2 billion
gift to the cancer research center at Oregon Health &
Science University, said to be the single largest donation to a university in the
United States. In 2024, Ruth Gottesman, the 93-year-old widow of a Wall Street financier,
announced a $1 billion donation to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the
Bronx, where she had been a professor.
Mr.
Dell said they were “still working through the details” of how the money would get
to individual children. The Treasury Department will facilitate the process of finding
accounts that meet the couple’s criteria.
“And
then we will transfer the funds,” he added, “and the Treasury Department will immediately
transfer those funds into the accounts of those children.”
Employers
can contribute up to $2,500 a year to the accounts of their employees’ children
without its counting as taxable income. A number of major companies, including Dell
Technologies, announced that they would match the $1,000 government contributions
to their employees’ newborn children. By law, those accounts have to be invested
in low-cost index funds at least until the children reach 18.
Mr.
Dell said he had spoken to other philanthropists interested in joining the effort.
“We
believe that if every child can see a future worth saving for,” he said, “we will
have built something far greater than an account.”
At
the White House, Mr. Dell said that he and Ms. Dell had initially talked about making
donations just to children in Texas before expanding to give to children nationwide.
“So we kind of started with a smaller amount, to be honest.,”
Mr. Dell said, and “adopting the state of Texas,” Ms. Dell said. They described
their back and forth, which led to making their gift include children nationwide.
“This is where we ended up,” Mr. Dell said.