Elon Musk has spoken out after it was revealed this week that he welcomed twins with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis in November 2021.
The news was revealed in court documents obtained by Insider, which showed that in April, Zilis and the 51-year-old Tesla founder filed a petition to change their babies' names to "have their father's last name and contain their mother's last name as part of their middle name."
In May, an Austin judge granted the request, the publication reports.
The Neuralink exec is serving as director of operations and special projects for the company, where Musk is co-CEO.
Appearing to respond to the news that he had welcomed two more babies late last year than what had been reported at the time, Musk tweeted: "Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far."
In a couple of follow-up tweets, Musk added: "Mark my words, they are sadly true" and "I hope you have big families and congrats to those who already do!"
Musk has often shared his thoughts on the birth rate, claiming there are "not enough people" in the world at Wall Street Journal's annual CEO Council in December 2021, USA Today reported.
He said: "I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birth rate and the rapidly declining birthrate."
He added: "And yet, so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. It's completely the opposite.
"Please look at the numbers – if people don't have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words."
Given the timing of the birth of some of his youngest children, it appears Musk is serious about doing his bit to increase the birth rate.
Indeed, Zilis gave birth to the twins in November 2021, which means they were born just before Musk and his ex-partner Grimes welcomed a second child via surrogate in December - despite them splitting up in September.
Per the court documents, Musk's children with Zilis were born in Austin, Texas. The sexes of the twins are not known and their names were redacted in the papers.
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