Topline
Elon Musk had twins in November with Shivon Zilis, an executive at Musk’s company Neuralink, according to court records obtained by Insider on Wednesday, bringing the number of known living children fathered by the world’s richest man to nine.
In a June 14, 2018 file photo, Tesla CEO and founder of the Boring Company Elon Musk speaks at a … [+]
Key Facts
Musk and Zilis filed a petition in a Travis County, Texas, court in April to change the twins’ names to “have their father’s last name and contain their mother’s last name as part of their middle name,” a request a judge approved in May, according to Insider, which published a copy of the court petition but redacted the twins’ names.
Musk, 51, is co-founder and CEO of Neuralink, a company that develops neural implants with the eventual goal of connecting human brains with machines, while Zilis has been director of operations and special projects at the company since 2017.
The twins were reportedly born just weeks before Musk and former partner Clair Boucher, better known by the stage name Grimes, had a second child through a surrogate last year.
Zilis, a Yale graduate, has worked in top roles in several Musk ventures, serving as a board member of OpenAI starting in 2020 and project director at Tesla from May 2017 to August 2019.
Zilis, 36, was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the venture capital category in 2015 for being part of a series of investment teams, including Bloomberg Beta.
Zilis, 36, was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the venture capital category in 2015 for being part of a series of investment teams, including Bloomberg Beta.
Musk and Zilis did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Forbes.
Big Number
$224.6 billion. That’s Musk’s net worth, making him the wealthiest person on Earth, according to Forbes’ estimates.
Key Background
Musk has repeatedly warned of what he claims is a looming crisis of population decline—and endorsed bringing more children into the world. Musk fathered six children with his first wife, Justine Wilson, but the couple’s first child died of sudden infant death syndrome in 2002 at just 10 weeks old. He had one son and one daughter with musician Grimes, though the two broke up in September 2021, three months before the birth of their daughter. Vivian Jenna Wilson, Musk and Wilson’s 18-year-old child, announced last month she was granted a name and gender change and no longer wanted to associate with her father.
Surprising Fact
Musk rarely shares photos of his children, but he tweeted a picture Friday of him and four of his sons meeting Pope Francis.
Further Reading
Elon Musk had twins last year with one of his top executives (Insider)
Elon Musk And Grimes ‘Still Love Each Other’ After Breakup (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/07/06/elon-musk-secretly-fathered-twins-with-neuralink-executive-report-says/