Ex-OpenAI Board Member Shivon Zilis Details Sperm Donation from Elon Musk Leading to Four Children

Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member, testified for hours Wednesday in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California, during Elon Musk's lawsuit to block OpenAI's shift to a for-profit company.

Her testimony covered her role in early discussions with Musk about the for-profit change, her work for his companies and how their personal relationship led to her having four of his children.

Around late 2020, "I still really wanted to be a mum and Elon made the offer around that time and I accepted," Zilis said. She explained that Musk had offered to donate sperm. "He was encouraging everyone around him at that time to have kids and he'd noticed I did not. He offered to make a donation," she added.

Zilis has worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley for more than 15 years. She held executive positions at Musk's Tesla and Neuralink. She joined OpenAI as an advisor in 2016, soon after its founding, and said that is how she first met Musk. She served as a director there from 2020 to 2023.

OpenAI lawyers have accused her of funneling information about the company to Musk after he left in 2018. Musk co-founded OpenAI and made early donations to it.

Zilis acknowledged a "one-off" romance with Musk about a decade ago but said they were not romantically involved in 2020 when he offered to father her children. Health issues had upended her original plan to marry and have children with a romantic partner.

For the first two children, born as twins in 2021, she did not envision Musk as an active father. They agreed to keep his paternity strictly confidential. She did not tell OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman at first because of that agreement.

Today Musk takes an active role with all four children, spending a few hours a week with them as a family, Zilis said. She informed Altman in 2022 after learning of an imminent Business Insider report on Musk's paternity.

Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman still wanted Zilis on the board. She said the three remained friends until at least 2023.

Court records include years of emails and texts among Zilis, Altman, Brockman and Musk about OpenAI's structure. As early as 2017, written exchanges involving Musk showed the need to move from nonprofit status to attract billions from investors.

Brockman and co-founder Ilya Sutskever pushed for a transition to a B Corp, a for-profit entity committed to a mission. Zilis's emails showed Musk seeking more control through extra board seats. He even suggested folding OpenAI into Tesla, perhaps as a B Corp subsidiary. Zilis said that "solves the funding issue immediately."

Altman, Brockman and Sutskever could not reach terms with Musk. An email from Zilis shown in court said they insisted Musk "not have control" of OpenAI's work.

Earlier this week, when asked about Zilis's long involvement with OpenAI after Musk's departure, Brockman said: "We trusted her to keep the Elon conflict under control."