One of Elon Musk’s sons has an Indian connection, Musk reveals on podcast with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath

Elon Musk

Elon Musk may be known for rockets, electric cars, and ambitious sci-fi dreams, but on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast People by WTF, the billionaire opened up about something far more personal. He spoke about his partner Shivon Zilis and revealed that one of their sons carries a meaningful Indian middle name.

During the conversation, Musk casually mentioned that Zilis, who works at Neuralink, has Indian heritage. “I’m not sure if you know this, but my partner Shivon is half Indian,” he said. He went on to share that one of their sons has the middle name Sekhar, chosen in honour of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Indian-American astrophysicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his work on the evolution of stars. It is a name that reflects both a scientific legacy and a cultural connection.

When Kamath asked whether Zilis had ever lived in India, Musk explained that her link to the country comes from ancestry rather than upbringing. She grew up in Canada and was adopted as a baby. Musk said he believed her biological father had been an exchange student at a university, but he admitted that he did not know the full family story.

Zilis herself has built an impressive career in technology and artificial intelligence. She grew up in Ontario, studied economics and philosophy at Yale, and played on the university’s ice hockey team. After stints at IBM and Bloomberg, she moved into venture capital before shifting her focus fully to AI. She joined OpenAI in 2016 and later became the youngest person on its board. In 2017, she joined Neuralink and now leads operations and special projects. She has described the brain implant company as the most complicated yet fascinating work she has ever done.

Musk and Zilis welcomed twins, Strider and Azure, in 2021. Their daughter, Arcadia, arrived in 2024, and Zilis later confirmed the birth of a fourth child named Seldon Lycurgus. Musk has several other children from earlier relationships, but his comment about the Indian connection added a new layer of curiosity to his expanding family.

In the same podcast episode, Musk also spoke warmly about Indian talent in the United States. He said America had gained enormously from the contributions of people of Indian origin, even as many Indians now face tougher visa rules and a more uncertain path to the classic American dream.

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