Elon Musk builds compound for his 11 kids and their mums - here's what we know

Elon Musk has spoken of his desire to maximise procreation (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA) (PA Archive)
Elon Musk has spoken of his desire to maximise procreation (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA) (PA Archive)

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.

Musk, 53, the world’s richest man and supporter of US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump, has tried to establish the unusual family set-up as he’s allegedly still trying to father yet more children with different women.

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.

But it has been reported only one of the mums has gone for the idea and moved in so far.

Claims have also been made that the media mogul is so concerned with procreating that he has been “offering his sperm” to women, and asking them to have his children.

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.

One of those children, Xavier, changed her name to be called Vivian Jenna Wilson. She is a transgender woman and uses her mother's maiden name because she no longer wishes to have anything to do with her dad.

After Musk and Justine got divorced, he went on to date other women.

In 2018, he began dating Claire Boucher, a musician also known as Grimes. She gave birth to their son in May 2020 and they called the baby "X Æ A-12". The pair had another child in 2021 via surrogacy, whose name we do not know, and then another child in 2023, said to be called Techno Mechanicus.

In 2022, Business Insider reported that Musk had fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, named Strider and Azure. Zilis is a top executive at Neuralink, another company owned by the billionaire that specialised in brain implants. It is said the pair have since gone on to have another child together and are still together, but the child’s name and gender have not been revealed.

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.

Who else has Musk dated?

The Tesla mogul has dated a string of women, with some seeming to overlap.

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?”

He dated actress Amber Heard in 2016 and British star Talulah Riley from 2008 to 2012 and again from 2013 to 2016.

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.”