Last Updated:
In a picture which has been widely shared on social media platform X, Elon Musk is seen interacting with Ivanka Trump as Shivon Zilis looks on
Shivon Zilis is the Director of Operations and Special Projects of Neuralink, Musk’s artificial intelligence company. (X)
While SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s attendance at US President Donald Trump’s dinner at the Building Museum on January 19, a day before his inauguration to the post, was expected, what has caught the attention of the internet is his plus-one at the event – Shivon Zilis, the mother of his three children.
Amid the intrigue around their relationship, this is the first major public appearance of Zilis with Musk, who is the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In a picture of the high-profile event which has been widely shared on Musk’s social media platform X, Musk is seen interacting with Trump’s daughter Ivanka as Zilis looks on.
WHO IS SHIVON ZILIS?
- Born in Canada, Zilis, 38, is the Director of Operations and Special Projects of Neuralink, Musk’s artificial intelligence company. She joined the company in May 2017
- Zilis has worked at multiple of his other companies, including OpenAI and electric car manufacturer Tesla, according to her LinkedIn profile
- According to her LinkedIn profile, she has completed her Bachelor in Arts, Economics and Philosophy from Yale University
- Her work at Bloomberg Beta earned her a spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in the venture-capital category in 2015
- She has also been placed in LinkedIn’s 35 under 35 list.
3 KIDS & THE FIRST TIME ZILIS CAME IN THE NEWS
Zilis had twins – Strider and Azure – with Musk in 2021. This came to light in April 2022, as Musk and Zilis filed a petition to change the name of the twins with the aim of having “their father’s last name”, while the mother’s last name would be their middle name. After a month, a Texas judge approved the petition. A court docket summary on the Westlaw legal research service showed a judge signed an “Order Changing the Names Of Multiple Children” on May 11.
Musk had another child with Zilis early 2024. The child’s name and gender is not known.
Walter Isaacson, Musk’s biographer, described Zilis in his Time cover story as Musk’s “intellectual companion on artificial intelligence since the founding of OpenAI eight years earlier”.
Isaacson also revealed the names of the twins in the Time cover story and shared a photo of them.
THE TIMES ZILIS SPOKE ABOUT MUSK ON X
While Zilis has been tight-lipped about her relationship with Musk, she is often seen posting about him on X.
On January 21, 2025, she posted Musk’s speech at the Presidential parade, quoting a line he said: “There need to be things that inspire you. There need to be things make you glad to wake up in the morning and say, “I’m looking forward to the future.”
✨ There need to be things that inspire you. There need to be things make you glad to wake up in the morning and say, “I’m looking forward to the future” ✨ Shivon Zilis (@shivon) January 20, 2025
On December 22, 2024, quoting a thread from Musk’s timeline, she wrote: “When I first encountered Elon, one of the things that struck me was that he was never interested in doing anything “for money” — it would always boil down to “is this of existential relevance to humanity”. And, sure, if you’re running a business it has to be financially sustainable to scale and be effective through time, but the point is he was never interested in anything, no matter how lucrative, unless it was of existential relevance to our species. It was rare and refreshing — and hopefully increasingly common amongst us as time goes forward. So, yes, it may be that he’s too expensive to be buyable but in reality it was moot regardless!”
When I first encountered Elon, one of the things that struck me was that he was never interested in doing anything “for money” — it would always boil down to “is this of existential relevance to humanity”.And, sure, if you’re running a business it has to be financially… https://t.co/bw1wAK6Osm
— Shivon Zilis (@shivon) December 22, 2024
In 2020, replying to a tweet of California State Assembly member, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, Shivon had defended Musk.
This makes me sad. No one’s perfect but I’ve never met anyone who goes through more personal pain to fight for an inspiring future for humanity – and has done so tirelessly for decades. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion but mine is that there’s no one I respect and admire more Shivon Zilis (@shivon) May 11, 2020
MUSK HAS FATHERED 12 CHILDREN
Musk has often spoken about the need to more children to help the “underpopulation crisis”. He has fathered 12 children with three partners.
Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis.A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2022
The X owner and his ex-wife Justine Wilson had six kids, one of whom died. Nevada, born in 2002, who died as an infant; twins Griffin Musk and Vivian Wilson born in 2004; triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian born in 2006.
Hey, I wud prefer to not breathe any more life into this current press cycle but I want to de-escalate the narrative atm.I spoke with Shivon at length finally, which was long overdue. This wasn’t her fault, plz don’t be angry at her! We respect each other a lot and we’re…
— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) September 10, 2023
Musk has three kids — two sons and a daughter — with Canadian musician Grimes. Born in in May 2020, the first son was named X Æ A-Xii Musk. The daughter, Exa Dark Sideræl, was born in December 2021. Techno Mechanicus Musk, nicknamed ‘Tau’, was born in mid-June 2022.
He has three kids with Zilis.
