Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk revealed his partner Shivon Zilis has Indian heritage
- Their son carries the middle name “Sekhar” after Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
- Musk praised the significant contributions of Indian professionals in the US
Elon Musk has disclosed that his partner, Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, has Indian roots, and one of their sons bears the middle name “Sekhar” in tribute to Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. The Tesla CEO made these revelations during an appearance on Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s podcast “People by WTF.”
“I’m not sure if you know this, but my partner Shivon is half Indian,” Musk stated on the show. He added, “One of my sons with her, his middle name is Sekhar after Chandrasekhar.”
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the renowned Indian-American astrophysicist honored through this naming, shared the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for his groundbreaking theoretical work on stellar structure and evolution.
Shivon Zilis’s Indian Connection
When questioned about whether Zilis had lived in India, Musk clarified that her connection to the country is ancestral rather than through upbringing. “She grew up in Canada. She was given up for adoption when she was a baby. I think her father was like an exchange student at the university or something like that,” Musk explained.
The billionaire entrepreneur acknowledged he didn’t have complete details about her biological family background, emphasizing that he didn’t know the full story.
Who Is Shivon Zilis?
Shivon Zilis is an accomplished technology and artificial intelligence professional with an impressive career trajectory. She joined Neuralink in 2017 and currently serves as the company’s director of operations and special projects.
According to available information, Zilis grew up in Ontario, Canada, and pursued economics and philosophy at Yale University, where she also played as a goalie on the ice hockey team. Her professional journey includes roles at IBM and Bloomberg, working on internal ventures and startup partnerships, before transitioning to venture capital at Bloomberg Beta.
In 2016, she shifted her focus directly to artificial intelligence by joining OpenAI, where she eventually became the youngest member of its board of directors before stepping down in 2023.
At the Canadian Undergraduate Conference on AI, Zilis described Neuralink as the most “complicated but also fascinating thing I’ve ever encountered in my life.”
Musk and Zilis quietly welcomed twins named Strider and Azure in 2021. Their daughter Arcadia was born in February 2024, and Zilis later confirmed the arrival of their fourth child, Seldon Lycurgus. Musk has several other children with different partners.
Musk’s Appreciation for Indian Talent
During the same podcast episode, Musk also expressed his admiration for the contributions of Indian professionals in the United States. He stated that America has “benefited immensely from talented Indians that have come to America.”
His comments come at a time when the traditional American dream—offering quality education, high-paying jobs, better living standards, and social mobility—is becoming increasingly challenging for many Indians due to tightening US visa regulations and unpredictable policy changes.
