Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed that his partner Shivon Zilis has Indian roots. Speaking on Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath’s podcast “WTF is?”, Musk also shared that one of their sons has the middle name “Sekhar,” inspired by Indian-American Nobel-winning physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
“I’m not sure if you know this, but my partner Shivon is half-Indian,” Musk said. “One of my sons with her, his middle name is Sekhar — after Chandrasekhar.”
Musk went on to share more about Zilis’s background when asked where she grew up.
“She grew up in Canada. She was given up for adoption when she was a baby. I think her father was an exchange student at a university or something like that,” he said, adding that he did not know all the details.
Zilis joined Musk’s neurotechnology company Neuralink in 2017 and currently serves as Director of Operations and Special Projects. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Philosophy from Yale University.
Musk and Zilis share four children — twins Strider and Azure, daughter Arcadia, and son Seldon Lycurgus.
During the conversation, Musk also praised Indian contributions to the United States.
“America has been an immense beneficiary of talent from India, but that seems to be changing now,” he noted.
His remark comes amid rising concerns over tightening U.S. immigration policies, making the traditional “American dream” increasingly uncertain for many Indian professionals.