Elon Musk has shed light on a personal aspect of his relationship with Shivon Zilis, revealing that she is of Indian heritage. During a podcast interview, Musk explained that their son’s middle name, ‘Sekhar,’ was chosen in honor of the distinguished Indian-American physicist and Nobel laureate, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. The conversation occurred on the ‘WTF is?’ podcast hosted by Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath.
“My partner Shivon is half Indian,” Musk confirmed, adding context to his son’s name: “One of my sons with her, his middle name is Sekhar after Chandrasekhar.” The astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his fundamental theoretical contributions to the study of stars.
Musk clarified that Zilis’s connection to India is familial. “She grew up in Canada,” he said, noting that she was adopted as a baby. He speculated her father might have been a student participating in an exchange program at a university in Canada, where she was subsequently raised.
Zilis is a leading figure in the technology and artificial intelligence fields. She joined Neuralink in 2017 and presently leads operations and special projects. She holds a degree in economics and philosophy from Yale University and has a robust professional background, including previous roles at IBM, Bloomberg, and the venture capital firm Bloomberg Beta.
With Elon Musk, Zilis is a mother to four children: the twins Strider and Azure (born 2021), daughter Arcadia (born 2024), and their youngest son, Seldon Lycurgus. Musk also has other children from different relationships.
In a broader discussion about immigration, Musk asserted that the United States has greatly benefited from attracting and employing talented individuals from India. While acknowledging that the H-1B visa program has been subject to misuse by some organizations, he strongly advocated against its abolition, emphasizing its crucial role in bringing skilled professionals to the U.S. and the overall positive impact on the nation.