Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis says she and Elon Musk have broken up

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, and Shivon Zilis, an executive at Neuralink, have broken up, Zilis said in a post on X on Oct 2. Zilis wrote that it is hard “to have to part ways while in love without any warning after a week, but sometimes that happens,” according to Dong-A Ilbo and Asia Economy. Asia Economy reported that Zilis made the statement while quoting a post indicating that Musk no longer follows her account, and that Musk has given no position on the breakup. [ 1 , 3 ]

Zilis said she was happy “to have been able to let him experience what it feels like to be deeply understood, cared for and calmly loved in stability and warmth,” and that she hoped she had left a lasting good influence on him. She said she loved him more than her life and wanted the two to remain good friends and co-parents, the reports said. Asia Economy reported that the specific reason for the breakup was not known. [ 1 , 3 ]

Zilis also published messages she and Musk exchanged on Sept 24, about a week before the breakup, which contained “I love you,” Dong-A Ilbo and Asia Economy reported. Seoul Shinmun’s headline likewise said Musk said “I love you” a week before the breakup. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]

Zilis was Musk’s partner and a long-time business associate, Asia Economy reported. She worked at Tesla, served as a director of OpenAI and is now an executive at the brain-implant company Neuralink, and until recently accompanied Musk at major public events. Dong-A Ilbo and Asia Economy both said the two have four children. Asia Economy reported that twins Strider and Azure were born through in-vitro fertilization in November 2021, that a third child, Arcadia, was born in 2024, and that news of a fourth child emerged last year; that child is Musk’s 14th, the outlet said. [ 1 , 3 ]

Asia Economy also noted that Zilis testified in May in Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, where she was asked whether she had frequently discussed alternatives for the start-up’s early governance and answered “to the point of exhaustion” — testimony the outlet said ran against Musk’s claim that OpenAI deceived him and abandoned its non-profit founding purpose. The outlet added that Musk has 14 publicly known children with four women, that he has clashed publicly with some of the mothers, that he fought a custody dispute with the singer Grimes, with whom he has three children, and that Ashley St. Clair, the mother of another child, said she rejected a $40 million confidentiality agreement offered by Musk’s side. Justine Wilson, Musk’s first wife, testified in Alex Gibney’s documentary “Musk” that Musk called women who bore his children “breeders,” Asia Economy reported. [ 3 ]