Who are Shivon Zilis's parents? Elon Musk says he’s not racist since partner is Indian

Elon Musk is no stranger to controversy, but a recent conversation with The Economist saw the fifty-five-year-old push back on one allegation in particular. Sitting across from editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, Musk addressed claims that have trailed him across social media, that he holds racist views. The wide-ranging conversation touched on his immigration stance, his posts on X and the internal culture of his companies, but it was his defence against the racism label that drew the most attention.

Critics have long accused Musk of amplifying divisive narratives through his activity on X. When Beddoes pressed him on whether his rhetoric aligned with far-right viewpoints, he pointed straight to his personal life.

"My partner is... she's half Indian, and I have four children with her," Musk said.

The SpaceX CEO was referring to Shivon Zilis, an executive at Neuralink.

"One of them was named after a famous Indian physicist, so I would say I'm not racist," he added.

Zilis, who is forty years old, was born in Markham, Ontario. As per a report shared by The Tribune, her mother, Sharda Zilis, was a Punjabi-origin exchange student who met Shivon's father, Richard Zilis, while studying in Canada.

Elon Musk points to executives of all races as he pushes back on racism allegations:

In the same interview, Musk expanded his defence beyond his personal life, pointing to the makeup of his companies as further evidence against the racism label.

"And also, if you look at the people that are employed at my companies, we have senior executives of all races. I don't think there's any racism there," he shared.

Earlier this year, Musk had also revealed the story behind the name of his son, Strider Sekhar, while responding to a post from the X account Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, which featured a photo of him with his twins. "Strider" is drawn from Aragorn's alias in The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, while "Sekhar" was chosen to honour Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who received the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics.

As per a report shared by People, Musk first became a father in 2002, when his ex-wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, welcomed their son Nevada Alexander, who tragically died at ten weeks old. The former couple went on to have five more children together, twins Vivian and Griffin, and triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian.

Musk and singer Grimes were first linked in 2018, and two years later announced the arrival of their first child, X Æ A-12. The former couple share two more children, daughter Exa Dark Sideræl and son Techno Mechanicus.

According to court documents published by Business Insider, a few weeks before Grimes welcomed their second child, Musk had secretly fathered twins Strider and Azure with Zilis in November 2021. The pair then welcomed daughter Arcadia in February 2024, before Zilis announced they had secretly welcomed a fourth child together, son Seldon Lycurgus, though it remains unclear when.

In February 2025, Ashley St. Clair revealed that she and Musk had welcomed a son, later named Romulus. As per a report shared by The Telegraph, recently, Elon Musk has repeatedly commented on race through his posts. In January, he wrote on X that

"Whites are a rapidly dying minority."

That same month, he responded "true" to a post stating that

"white solidarity is the only way to survive."

Elon Musk claims people labelled far-right are just normal people as he addresses immigration stance:

The interview took a more nuanced turn when Beddoes questioned whether Musk's comments on immigration reflected anti-Muslim sentiment. Rather than directly accepting or rejecting the label, Musk argued that his concerns centred on cultural values.

"If people are coming to a country with antithetical views, I am against that ... I'm against rape and murder, I'm against the imposition of rules and laws that are contrary to what we've come to accept in the West," he shared.

Elon Musk also pushed back on how people with similar views were being categorised, insisting that those characterised as far-right were simply ordinary people.

Elon Musk says he can no longer stop AI's momentum even if he wanted to:

Away from the controversy, Elon Musk shifted the conversation toward artificial intelligence, a topic he has never been shy about. Despite years of warning that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity, Elon Musk suggested that trying to halt its progress is no longer a realistic option.

"The risk is not zero," Musk acknowledged, referring to advanced AI and robotics. Even so, he shared that his own outlook had evolved considerably.

"My sort of philosophical conclusion is to look on the bright side," he said.

He then added that the

"most likely outcome is incredible abundance for all."

As per Musk, AI development has gathered so much pace that no individual, company or government can realistically apply the brakes.

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"I can't see any way to really stop this incredible momentum of AI and robots," he said.

"Even if I wanted to stop it, I couldn't," he added.

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