Elon Musk has bought a compound to reportedly house all of his children and their mums in one place. The entrepreneur has snapped up a multi-million-pound 14,400-square-foot residence with the intent to accommodate his large family in Austin, Texas.
The X owner is said to have told those closest to him that he wishes his children and their mothers to live in adjoining homes next to each other, to make it easier for him to see all of his offspring at the same time and allow the younger siblings to be in each other’s lives.
He has previously said: “A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilisation faces by far” and it seems he is trying to solve the problem himself by offering his DNA in the hopes of creating more offspring.
According to The New York Times, in addition to the women he’s already had children with, Musk has “offered his own sperm to friends and acquaintances”.
One of these women is said to be former independent vice presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan, but she reportedly turned him down.
Other people whom the richest man in the world similarly offered his sperm to are said to include “a married couple he had met socially only a handful of times” in 2023 at a dinner party “at the home of a well-known Silicon Valley executive”.
Here is everything we know about his plans to shack up with all of his children and their mothers.
How many children does Musk have?
Musk has 12 children that we know of. However, one of his children, Nevada Alexander Musk, his first child with Justine Musk, died at just two-and-half months from sudden infant death syndrome in 2002.
The couple went on to have twins Griffin and Xavier via IVF in 2004 and triplets in 2006.
After Musk and Justine got divorced, he went on to date other women.
It is reportedly Zilis has moved into the compound with her children, but is so far the only one to have gone for his plan for group living.
He previously said he was in love with being in love, adding: “If I’m not in love, if I’m not with a long-term companion, I cannot be happy.
“I will never be happy without having someone. Going to sleep alone kills me. It’s not like I don’t know what that feels like: Being in a big empty house, and the footsteps echoing through the hallway, no one there – and no one on the pillow next to you. F**k. How do you make yourself happy in a situation like that?”
Musk and Riley definitely appear to be on good terms, as he was said to have recently attended her wedding to actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster.
What has he said about birth rates falling?
He has been outspoken in his fears about declining birth rates around the world.
In January 2022, he wrote on X: “We should be much more worried about population collapse,” following up with: “UN projections are utter nonsense. Just multiply last year’s births by life expectancy. Given the downward trend in birth rate, that is best case unless reversed.” He then added: “If there aren’t enough people for Earth, then there definitely won’t be enough for Mars.”
More recently, Musk said that declining global fertility rates “will lead to mass extinction of entire nations”.
The recent comment came as a response to Marko Jukic, a senior analyst at Bismarck Analysis, who said: “A fertility rate below 1.6 means 50 per cent less new people after three generations, say 100 years. Below 1.2 means an 80 per cent drop. The U.S. is at 1.64. China, Japan, Poland, Spain all below 1.2. South Korea is at 0.7 – 96 per cent drop. Mass extinction numbers.”