Elon Musk has revealed a previously unknown detail about his partner, Shivon Zilis, disclosing her half-Indian ancestry. He shared this during a podcast, explaining that their son’s middle name, ‘Sekhar,’ is a tribute to the renowned Indian-American physicist and Nobel laureate, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Musk made these revelations on the ‘WTF is?’ podcast hosted by Nikhil Kamath, founder of Zerodha.
“I’m not sure if you know this, but my partner Shivon is half Indian,” Musk stated during the conversation. He further elaborated, “One of my sons with her, his middle name is Sekhar after Chandrasekhar.” The astrophysicist S Chandrasekhar was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his significant theoretical studies concerning the structure and evolution of stars.
Regarding Zilis’s connection to India, Musk clarified that her roots are ancestral rather than cultural. “She grew up in Canada,” he explained. “I think her father was like an exchange student at the university or something like that. I’m not sure the exact details, but she was given up for adoption when she was a baby and grew up in Canada.”
Shivon Zilis is a distinguished professional in the tech and artificial intelligence sectors. She has been instrumental at Neuralink since 2017, currently serving as the director of operations and special projects. Prior to Neuralink, Zilis, who studied economics and philosophy at Yale University, had a notable career including positions at IBM, Bloomberg, and the venture capital firm Bloomberg Beta.
Zilis is a mother to four children with Elon Musk, including twins Strider and Azure (born 2021), daughter Arcadia (born 2024), and their youngest son, Seldon Lycurgus. Musk has additional children with other partners.
In related comments, Musk also spoke about the significant contributions of Indian talent to the United States, particularly in the context of the H-1B visa program. He acknowledged that while some misuse of the visa system exists, particularly by outsourcing companies, the program itself should not be terminated, emphasizing the immense benefits the US has derived from hiring skilled Indian professionals.