Elon Musk’s 3-year-old son, Strider, is an out-of-this-world artist, at least according to his parents.
Rather than just sticking Strider’s drawing on the refrigerator, his mother, Shivon Zilis, shared it with a wider audience on X. Addressed tenderly to “Daddy,” the sketch — animated by Zilis using AI — features a bright yellow rocket ship blasting off with fiery orange flames beneath a vivid depiction of Mars, shaded in pink and red.
“Imagine bringing images to life,” she captioned the post.
Zilis received hundreds of responses, but one stood out: a smiling face with hearts emoji from Musk. His delight made sense — he does own SpaceX, after all.
Musk, 54, and Zilis, 39, have four children together, boy-girl twins Strider and Azure, 17-month-old daughter, Arcadia, and son Seldon, born in February 2025.
The billionaire has publicly acknowledged 13 children, while paternity of a 14th child is currently the subject of a New York Court case.
Zilis, an executive at Neuralink, the brain-chip company owned by Musk, once wrote there is “no one” she admires or respects more than him. For that reason, the Yale alum said she didn’t hesitate when he approached her about starting a family, motivated by concerns over declining birth rates.
“He really wants smart people to have kids, so he encouraged me to,” Zilis told Walter Isaacson in his biography of the Tesla founder. “If the choice is between an anonymous sperm donor or doing it with the person you admire most in the world, for me that was a pretty f—— easy decision. I couldn’t possibly think of genes I would prefer for my children.”
Though Musk is tight-lipped about his family, Zilis occasionally shares small updates about them on X. For example, in March, she revealed that Strider was in his “ask a thousand questions” phase and when she doesn’t have answers, he knows where to look.
“Mommy’s lack of knowledge is no longer acceptable,” Zilis wrote, “when he knows the voice on my phone can answer every question.”
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