Who is Shivon Zilis, a Punjabi, mother to Elon Musk's four kids and key witness in OpenAI trial?

In the ongoing high-stakes battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman over OpenAI, the name of Shivon Zilis was mentioned within minutes the trial opened in a US court. But who is Zilis, who also happens to have Punjabi connection.

In Short

• Shivon Zilis is scheduled to give testimony in Elon Musk vs OpenAI trial
• Shivon earlier worked for OpenAI when Musk was involved there
• Currently, Shivon lives with Musk and is mother of his four kids

On Tuesday when OpenAI lawyers asked Elon Musk, who was under oath giving sworn testimony, who was Shivon Zilis, he first paused for a few seconds. Then he said, “she is my chief of staff and, uh, yeah.” The remarks, for good reasons, made many in the courtroom chuckle. Because Shivon is, well, not Elon Musk’s chief of staff.

Musk himself clarified the next day. As his testimony in his case against Sam Altman and OpenAI entered Day 3 on Wednesday, he decided to set the record straight. Probably because he might have been musing about what he said on Tuesday. Again on stand, Musk this time was more candid about Shivon. He said, “We live together. And she’s the mother of four of my children.”

But the mention of Shivon on consecutive days is bound to bring up some questions in the minds of many people. Why is she so important to this trial, in which Elon Musk is suing Sam Altman, OpenAI and Microsoft, allegedly for changing the character of OpenAI from a non-profit to for profit company? In this high-stakes legal battle, a case that has already produced some of the juiciest Silicon Valley texts ever submitted as evidence, Shivon has become something far more consequential than a romantic footnote of Musk’s life.

So, who is Shivon Zilis and what is her connection to this case? Is she indeed the covert liaison, as alleged by OpenAI lawyers, who secretly kept information flowing between Musk and the AI organisation for years, long after he left its board?

Of course, there is a trial going on and her role in this saga will become clearer only after the jury has spoken. But until then, we can take a closer look at Shivon Zilis the person and how she is connected to Elon Musk.

Zilis and her connection to Punjab

Before we talk of Shivon and musk, let’s talk of Shivon the kid. Shivon Zilis, now 40, was born in Markham, Ontario, to a Hindu Punjabi Indian mother, Sharda Zilis, and a White Canadian father, Richard Zilis.

She grew up in Canada, attended Unionville High School, played hockey at Yale, graduating in 2008, before going on to IBM's cognitive computing division.

Shivon later became a founding member of Bloomberg Beta, the venture capital arm of Bloomberg. Forbes put her on its "30 Under 30" list for venture capital in 2015, the year before she walked into OpenAI's orbit.

Stepping into OpenAI

Shivon began her association with OpenAI around 2016 as an adviser, later serving on its nonprofit board until 2023. Around the timeline of her joining, she also reportedly became romantically involved with Musk.

From 2017 to 2019, she worked at Tesla as a project director on the Autopilot and chip design team, and later served as director of operations and special projects at Neuralink. She was, in short, working closely within Musk’s business empire.

Zilis and Musk’s kids

At the same time, Shivon Zilis and Elon Musk were also building a family, one that, like much of Musk’s world, comes with unusual names and backstories.

The two had their first set of twins via IVF in November 2021: Strider Sekhar and Azure. Strider, Musk has said, is a nod to Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, while “Sekhar” pays tribute to Nobel Prize-winning physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Azure, meanwhile, draws inspiration from gaming lore, specifically a spell in Elden Ring.

Their daughter Arcadia reportedly born in mid-2023, followed by son Seldon Lycurgus in late 2024, taking the total to four children that Shivon shares with Musk.

The OpenAI link: more than just proximity

But what makes Shivon part of the OpenAI trial is not just her personal connection to Musk. She, in fact, was the centre of some of the most sensitive exchanges, when Musk decided to step black from OpenAI.

While working closely with Musk, including after he left OpenAI’s board in 2018, Shivon reportedly became an insider for Musk.

Messages presented in court suggest she acted as a quiet intermediary between Musk and OpenAI, maintaining lines of communication even as tensions brewed.

In one text message cited during the trial, Shivon asked Musk: “Do you prefer I stay close and friendly to OpenAI to keep info flowing or begin to disassociate? Trust game is about to get tricky.”

Musk’s response was telling — stay close, and even try to move a few people from OpenAI to Tesla.

Over time, Shivon emerged as a trusted partner for Musk — relaying updates, offering advice, and sitting in on conversations with key OpenAI figures like Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever.

In one exchange, again revealed during the court hearing, when Shivon conveyed that OpenAI leaders were uncomfortable with any one person having unilateral control over AGI, Musk fired back sharply: “This is very annoying. Please encourage them to go start a company. I’ve had enough.”

Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seemed to view her as a sounding board. In October 2022, he reportedly texted Shivon asking how to respond to an angry message from Musk. Months later, in early 2023, he again reached out, this time asking whether posting something positive about Musk publicly would be a good idea.

All of this is why, as the case unfolds, Shivon has emerged as more than just a background figure. She may not have founded OpenAI, but her proximity to both Musk and the company made her a key person who saw both sides up close. And it is this proximity that OpenAI and Musk lawyers will try to highlight, although in different ways, during her scheduled testimony to swing the case in their client’s favour.

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