Neuralink Executive Shivon Zilis Splits From Elon Musk

Shivon Zilis found out the way a lot of exes do now: an unfollow notification. On Thursday, the Neuralink executive and mother of four of Elon Musk's children confirmed on X that she and Musk had split, quote-tweeting a post from "Big Tech Alert," an account that tracks who's following and unfollowing whom on the platform. The post flagged that Musk no longer followed her. It was sponsored by Kalshi, which is either a coincidence or proof that nothing about this relationship was ever going to be normal.

Zilis has spent years occupying a strange dual role in Musk's orbit, both personal and professional. Earlier this year, her work surfaced in a courtroom, during Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI's Sam Altman over Musk's early donations to the company. Zilis testified about her hours, her title, and what exactly she did across Tesla, Neuralink, and OpenAI.

Musk, for his part, offered his own description of her job, one that didn't entirely match hers. Now that dispute over titles looks almost quaint next to the much simpler, much more public question of what happens when the relationship itself ends on a social media platform he owns.