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Michael and Susan Dell are donating $6.25 billion to expand the reach of a new government program that will provide savings accounts for millions of U.S. children.
The donation will go toward savings for roughly 25 million American children who aren’t eligible for the $1,000 in seed money the government plans to provide for younger children in the new investment accounts.
The tax plan passed by Congress over the summer created tax-deferred investment accounts for children under 18. The Treasury Department will contribute $1,000 to what are called the “Trump accounts” for children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, who have a Social Security number and are U.S. citizens.
The Dells said Tuesday that they were seeking to fill the gap for children who weren’t eligible for the government funds. Their donation will provide $250 for children 10 or under who were born before Jan. 1, 2025. The gift will target children in zip codes with a median income of $150,000 or less.
“We’ve seen what happens when a child gets even a small financial head start—their world expands,” Michael Dell, chief executive of Dell Technologies, said in a video message. The Dell founder remains one of the country’s wealthiest people with an estimated net worth of about $148 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
If 25 million children who are 10 or under don’t sign up to receive the funds, Dell said he would consider expanding the pool of eligible children to 11- and 12-year-olds.
The billionaire computer pioneer was one of a dozen CEOs who attended a White House roundtable event in June where President Trump discussed the savings program. At the time, Dell said his company would match the $1,000 government funding for children of its employees.
That company match is expected to be deductible as a corporate-wage expense and nontaxable to employees.
The Dells’ $6.25 billion contribution announced Tuesday is coming from their various charitable vehicles to which they have contributed, according to a representative for the Dells.
Their donation expands a government program that was earmarked to cost about $15 billion through 2034 in the budget bill passed earlier this year.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday while he was on the way to Washington, D.C., to meet with Trump, Dell said he started investing and saving decades ago when he was just 8 years old through a passbook savings account.
He said he had around $8 in it and watched that sum steadily grow. “I became fascinated with compounded interest and learned about that at a very young age,” Dell said.
The new accounts, expected to launch in 2026, are custodial individual retirement accounts for children, with special rules until the child turns 18. Parents, relatives and friends will be able to contribute up to $5,000 annually in after-tax dollars, starting in July. Employers and charitable organizations can also contribute.
Details of the accounts were still being ironed out, but the funds would be invested in a diversified index fund tracking U.S. equities. The Treasury Department would oversee the program and banks or other financial institutions would manage administration.
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