The Secret Family: 7 Shocking Facts About Elon Musk’s Twins, Strider And Azure, And Their Neuralink Executive Mother

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In a world of constant technological breakthroughs and headline-grabbing ventures, few personal stories have captured global attention quite like the complex, expanding family of tech mogul Elon Musk. As of late 2025, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is the father of 14 children with four different women, a family structure he publicly links to his deep-seated concern over the "underpopulation crisis" and collapsing birth rates. Among his children, a set of twins born in secret to one of his top executives at Neuralink—Strider and Azure Musk-Zilis—stands out as a fascinating intersection of his personal life and professional empire. Born in late 2021, the twins and their mother, Shivon Zilis, represent a unique chapter in the Musk family saga, embodying a blend of cutting-edge technology, unique naming conventions, and a commitment to co-parenting that defies traditional norms. This deep dive uncovers the most recent, essential facts about the twins, their mother, and the powerful context surrounding their birth.

The Neuralink Connection: A Complete Profile of Strider and Azure's Parents

The story of the twins, Strider and Azure, is inextricably linked to the professional and personal relationship between Elon Musk and their mother, Shivon Zilis. The revelation of their birth in 2022, just weeks before Musk had a third child with musician Grimes, sent shockwaves through the tech world, highlighting the unconventional dynamics at play in the billionaire's private life.

Elon Musk: Entrepreneur, Visionary, and Father of 14

  • Full Name: Elon Reeve Musk
  • Born: June 28, 1971 (Age 54 as of late 2025)
  • Birthplace: Pretoria, South Africa
  • Key Companies: CEO of Tesla, CEO of SpaceX, Owner/CTO of X (formerly Twitter), Founder of The Boring Company, Co-founder of Neuralink, Co-founder of OpenAI.
  • Total Children: 14 (as of early 2025) with four different women.
  • Stated Motivation: Publicly advocates for higher birth rates, stating he is "doing his best to help the underpopulation crisis."

Shivon Zilis: AI Expert and Neuralink Executive

  • Full Name: Shivon Alice Zilis
  • Born: February 8, 1986 (Age 39 as of late 2025)
  • Birthplace: Markham, Ontario, Canada
  • Education: Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Philosophy from Yale University.
  • Current Role: Director of Operations and Special Projects at Neuralink, a neurotechnology company co-founded by Musk.
  • Previous Roles: Former Board Member at OpenAI (where she was the youngest member), Partner at Bloomberg Beta, and a prominent figure in the artificial intelligence and venture capital space.
  • Children with Musk: Four—Twins Strider and Azure (born 2021), daughter Arcadia (born 2024), and son Seldon.

The Timeline of Secrecy: How Strider and Azure Were Born

The birth of the twins, Strider and Azure, was initially a closely guarded secret, only coming to public light in July 2022. This revelation was not made by the parents themselves, but through court documents revealing a petition to change the children's names to "have the father's surname as part of their name and the mother's surname as part of their middle name."

The November 2021 Birth. Court filings confirmed that the twins were born in November 2021 in Austin, Texas. This timeline is particularly significant because it places their birth just weeks before Musk and his then-partner, Grimes, welcomed their second child via surrogate in December 2021. This overlapping timeline underscored the unconventional nature of Musk’s relationships and his commitment to expanding his family rapidly.

The IVF Connection. It has been widely reported that the twins, like some of Musk's other children, were conceived via In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). The use of advanced reproductive technology is a recurring theme in the Musk family, allowing for precise control over the timing and expansion of his family line, which aligns with his stated mission to combat the global decline in birth rates.

The Meaning Behind the Unique Names: Strider and Azure

Elon Musk is known for giving his children highly unconventional and often symbolic names. The twins with Shivon Zilis are no exception, with their names—Strider and Azure—carrying deep, imaginative, and perhaps even literary meanings.

  • Strider: A Nod to High Fantasy. The name Strider is widely believed to be a reference to the alias used by Aragorn, a key character in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy series, *The Lord of the Rings*. The name evokes a sense of movement, exploration, and adventure, fitting for the child of a man who runs a space exploration company.
  • Azure: A Visionary Color. The name Azure refers to a bright, deep, sky-blue color. It symbolizes the heavens, deep space, and a sense of vastness and clarity. Given Zilis’s background in Artificial Intelligence and Musk's focus on space (SpaceX) and brain-machine interfaces (Neuralink), the name Azure perfectly blends a sense of visionary technology and boundless exploration.
  • The Full Names. Following the court petition, the twins are known as Strider Zilis Musk and Azure Zilis Musk, cementing the mother's surname as a middle name and acknowledging both parents' roles.

The Broader Family Context: 14 Children and Co-Parenting

The birth of Strider and Azure is only one part of a much larger, highly-publicized family dynamic. By early 2025, the twins were two of 14 children—a number that has made Musk the poster child for the "underpopulation crisis" he frequently warns about.

The Zilis-Musk Quads. Strider and Azure are the first two of four children Zilis and Musk share. They have since welcomed a daughter, Arcadia (born 2024), and a son, Seldon. This commitment to a large family with Zilis, a key executive in his tech empire, further blurs the lines between Musk's professional and personal life, creating a unique co-parenting arrangement.

A Blended, Global Family. Musk has children with four women: his first wife, Justine Wilson (five children, including a set of triplets and a set of twins from his first marriage); musician Grimes (three children, including X Æ A-12); Shivon Zilis (four children); and a recently confirmed child with social media figure Ashley St. Clair (one child). This sprawling, blended family is a direct manifestation of Musk's philosophy that "smart people should have more babies before civilization collapses," a view he frequently expresses on his social media platform, X.

The lives of Strider and Azure Zilis Musk, therefore, are not just a private family matter; they are a public symbol of a billionaire's mission to shape the future, both through his technology companies like Neuralink and through his unconventional, rapidly growing family. Their story highlights the complex, modern reality of co-parenting between two of the most influential figures in the artificial intelligence and neurotechnology sectors.

elon musk twins
elon musk twins

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