Elon Musk has publicly acknowledged that his partner, Shivon Zilis, who works at Neuralink, has Indian heritage. He shared this personal detail during a recent podcast appearance, noting that their son carries the middle name ‘Sekhar’ in honor of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. The interview took place on the ‘WTF is?’ podcast, hosted by Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath.
“My partner Shivon is half Indian,” Musk confirmed during the discussion. He elaborated on their child’s name, stating, “One of my sons with her, his middle name is Sekhar after Chandrasekhar.” Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, an influential Indian-American astrophysicist, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his groundbreaking theoretical work on stellar structure and evolution.
Musk clarified Zilis’s connection to India is primarily through her ancestry. “She grew up in Canada,” he noted. He mentioned her father’s potential background as a university exchange student, adding that she was adopted as an infant and raised in Canada.
Zilis is a prominent figure in technology and AI. She joined Elon Musk’s company Neuralink in 2017 and currently holds the position of director of operations and special projects. Her academic background includes studying economics and philosophy at Yale University. Before her tenure at Neuralink, Zilis built a career through roles at major companies like IBM and Bloomberg, as well as at the venture capital firm Bloomberg Beta.
Zilis is a mother to four children with Musk: twins Strider and Azure, daughter Arcadia, and their youngest son, Seldon Lycurgus. Musk also has other children from different relationships.
Musk also addressed the topic of skilled immigration, highlighting the substantial benefits the U.S. has gained from employing talented individuals from India. He commented on the H-1B visa program, suggesting that while reforms are needed to prevent misuse by certain companies, the program remains vital and should not be abolished. He believes that shutting down the H-1B program would be detrimental.