--- title: "Elon Musk Using Eugenics Startup to Inspect DNA of Potential Babies for Intelligence" description: "An Austin eugenics startup apparently counts billionaire Elon Musk and his girlfriend, Neuralink director Shivon Zilis, among its clients." date: "2025-07-18" modified: "2025-07-18" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-eugenics-startup" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Genetics" - "Health & Medicine" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "designer babies" - "elon musk" - "embyros" - "eugenics" --- # Elon Musk Using Eugenics Startup to Inspect DNA of Potential Babies for Intelligence ![An Austin eugenics startup apparently counts billionaire Elon Musk and his girlfriend, Neuralink director Shivon Zilis, among its clients.]() *\Image: Allison Robbert / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* An Austin eugenics startup apparently counts billionaire Elon Musk and his girlfriend, Neuralink director Shivon Zilis, among its clients. That company, Orchid Health, provides tony clients the opportunity to screen their embryos for genetic illnesses starting at around $22,500. While there are a [handful]() of similar [genetic prediction firms](), Orchid stands out by claiming that it can sequence embryos' entire genome using as few as five cells and predict far more than its competitors. And according to two sources close to the company who [spoke to the *Washington Post*](), its services have been used for at least one of Zilis and Musk's four children. While it's not at all news that Musk, the father of [at least 14 children]() by multiple women, is [obsessed with reproduction](), this claim — which expands on [reporting from *The Information*]() last year — casts the billionaire's pronatalism in a new and even more unsettling light. One of *WaPo*'s Orchid insiders, who was not named to protect their privacy, told the newspaper that 30-year-old company founder Noor Siddiqi had provided Musk and Zilis with special screenings, which supposedly use bespoke algorithms to determine the embryo's potential for being intelligent. (While the company insists it's not involved in **"**eugenics,**"** a word meaning "good genes," it is very literally helping parents select good genes, and the alleged intelligence selection does sound a lot like the [dictionary definition of the practice]().) That claim appears to fall in line with a [telling tidbit Zilis divulged]() to Musk biographer Walter Isaacson: that the billionaire "really wants smart people to have kids," and that she chose to procreate with him after he encouraged her to have her own. When *WaPo* reached out to Orchid to ask about Musk and Zilis, as well as those intelligence screening allegations, the company declined to comment and claimed that although it does screen for intellectual disabilities, it does not offer any predictions about a future child's intelligence. Be that as it may, services like Orchid's are mired in both ethical and practical issues. Along with the perception that such services are [tantamount to playing God](), genetics experts who spoke with *WaPo* were very skeptical about Orchid's claim that it can sequence an embryo's entire genome from just five cells. According to Svetlana Yatsenko, a Stanford research genetics specialist, the company's use of a process called amplification, which copies DNA strands from small samples for analysis, is problematic because it's essentially using photocopies that could introduce inaccuracies to either rule out or declare genetic disorders. "You’re making many, many mistakes in the amplification," Yatsenko told *WaPo*. "It’s basically Russian roulette." Beyond the broad strokes, Orchid's own accountability problems appear much darker when considering how often Musk has cast bigoted aspersions on other races for their [purported intellectual inferiority](). **More on genetic services:** [*Genetics Startup Advertises App-Based Eugenics Service for Parents to Select "Smartest" Embryos*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()