Former OpenAI board member claims Elon Musk offered her sperm donations
Shivon Zilis, former OpenAI staffer, mother to four of Elon Musk's children, has put her unconventional relationship with the world's richest man on the public record, as she claimed in a US court on Wednesday that Musk had volunteered to share his sperm with her. The 40-year-old venture capitalist put her and Musk’s unconventional relationship with Musk on the public record. If any keen Silicon Valley spectators had hoped for dirty laundry to be aired, well, they sure got it.Zilis spared no detail on how her relationship with and Musk went from professional to personal."I still really wanted to be a mum and Elon made the offer around that time and I accepted," she said, explaining Musk in 2020 had "offered to donate sperm"."He was encouraging everyone around him at that time to have kids, and he'd noticed I did not." She added that, as a result, "he offered to make a donation".The pair now have four children together, though Zilis admitted she initially hid the father’s identity out of "fears for their safety" given Musk’s high profile status. She only informed the OpenAI board after the relationship was exposed in 2022 by the press. She has since been accused of spying on OpenAI as she carried on a romance with Musk. She has refuted those claims.Courtroom questioning focused briefly on corporate strategy when Zilis was asked about a text exchange regarding "keeping info flowing" from OpenAI. After claiming in earlier deposition statements that she didn’t recall the exchange, Zilis said Wednesday that Musk and OpenAI were “going through a weird half-breakup” and she wanted to help both parties “maintain max alignment,” a role she had historically played. Zilis explained the text exchange as “just trying to get a read on where his head was at.”But, the highly anticipated Silicon Valley showdown kept a keen focus on Musk’s personal life. Musk and Zilis' relationship was at the centre of the billionaire's own testimony last week, with the billionaire admitting that he lives with Zilis, and he has publicly referred to her as his “partner.”While Musk has fathered at least 14 children with four women and often jokes about being a “sperm donor” online, the court heard a far more domestic account. Musk testified last week that he lives with Zilis and publicly refers to her as his "partner," cementing their relationship on the record.
