‘Just sperm’: Shivon Zilis says Elon Musk helped her have children, insists there was ‘no romance’ during OpenAI trial

Former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis testified on Wednesday that tech billionaire Elon Musk offered to be her sperm donor while their relationship was still strictly platonic.

The testimony came during the high-profile jury trial regarding OpenAI’s transition into a for-profit entity. Zilis, who is also a top executive at Musk’s brain-chip company Neuralink, is the mother of three of Musk’s 14 known children.

Zilis, 40, described the origins of her children with Musk not as a traditional romance, but as a response to Musk’s well-documented fears regarding global population collapse. She told the court that around 2020, while she was struggling with autoimmune issues that complicated long-term relationships, Musk encouraged her to have children.

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“He offered to be a sperm donor so I could become a mother,” Zilis testified, noting that Musk expressed a desire for those in his inner circle to "have more children" to combat what he perceives as a looming demographic crisis.

The arrangement eventually led to the birth of twins in 2021 via in vitro fertilization (IVF), followed by a third child later. While Zilis described their initial connection as professional and platonic, she confirmed in court that their relationship has since evolved into a romantic one.

Conflicts of interest at OpenAI

The testimony sits at the heart of a legal battle over whether Zilis acted as a "proxy" for Musk while serving on OpenAI’s board. Zilis resigned from the board in 2023, citing a conflict of interest after Musk launched a direct competitor, xAI.

OpenAI’s legal team presented texts and emails suggesting that Zilis’s loyalty to the "father of her babies" may have influenced her fiduciary duties during critical discussions about the company’s restructuring and its relationship with Microsoft.

“When the father of your babies starts a competitive effort and starts recruiting from OpenAI, there is nothing to be done,” Zilis wrote to a friend in a text message unsealed during the proceedings.

The 'Musk method'

The revelation aligns with a growing pattern of reports regarding Musk’s "procreation-first" philosophy.

Previous court filings and reports have suggested Musk has made similar offers to other high-profile women and employees, often framing the donation as a way to ensure "high-IQ" individuals contribute to the future gene pool.

Musk, who was not present for Zilis’s testimony, has frequently used his platform on X (formerly Twitter) to advocate for larger families, often stating that "collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilisation faces by far."

The trial continues this week, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expected to take the stand to address Musk's claims of a "betrayed" non-profit mission.