Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has welcomed his twelfth child with Shivon Zilis, an executive at his brain implant company Neuralink. The baby was born earlier this year, though the name and sex have not been publicly revealed. Musk clarified that the birth was never intended to be a secret.
“Everyone close to us knows,” he stated, emphasizing that a lack of formal announcement does not equate to secrecy. Zilis, a rising star in the tech world, has garnered significant attention due to her relationship with Musk. Born in Canada, Zilis has an Indian connection through her mother, Sharda, who hails from India.
Zilis acknowledged her Punjabi heritage in a 2015 interview, crediting it for her big eyes. Zilis’ association with Musk likely began through their shared interest in artificial intelligence. She served on the board of OpenAI, a non-profit research company dedicated to friendly AI, until 2023.
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015. In November 2021, Musk and Zilis welcomed twins, Strider and Azure. This was just a month before Musk and singer Grimes welcomed their daughter, Exa Dark Siderael.
Grimes shares three children with Musk and recently requested privacy for their family amidst media attention surrounding their co-parenting dynamic.
Musk and Zilis welcome new baby
Reports surfaced in June 2024 indicating that Zilis had given birth to their third child, further adding to Musk’s extensive family tree.
This news highlighted the couple’s desire for privacy, as previous announcements about their children were also closely guarded. Despite the media frenzy, both Musk and Zilis seem committed to maintaining a level of discretion about their personal lives while carrying forward their professional endeavors in the tech and AI sectors. Musk, one of the world’s richest individuals with a fortune valued at $207 billion, is a vocal advocate for increasing the global birth rate.
He argues that declining birth rates pose the greatest threat to civilization, noting that many countries are falling below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman. Elon Musk now has a total of 12 children with three women. He had six children with his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson.
Their first child died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) at 10 weeks old. They later had twins, Griffin and Vivian, in 2004, followed by triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian in 2006. Shivon Zilis, a Yale graduate, joined Neuralink in 2017.
She has been closely involved with Musk’s ventures, serving as an adviser to OpenAI and a fellow at the Creative Destruction Lab, a machine-learning incubator at the University of Toronto. As birth rates in developed countries continue to decline, Musk believes these trends will have serious economic and social consequences, including increased financial strain on government services and pensions. Analysts suggest factors such as lack of affordable housing and the struggle to balance career and family life are reasons adults are having fewer children.
