Elon Musk hits back at Vinod Khosla over racism row; says, 'My partner is half Indian, son’s middle name is Sekhar'

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has pushed back against Indian-American venture capitalist Vinod Khosla following a public exchange on X over race and politics, escalating a debate that has drawn widespread attention across Silicon Valley.

The dispute began after Musk last year posted that “white people are a rapidly diminishing minority of the global population.”

White people are a rapidly diminishing minority of global population https://t.co/34ZWgTQ96q

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2025

Khosla responded by accusing Musk of promoting what he described as “WAGA”, short for “white America great again”, instead of the MAGA movement, and alleged that Musk was advancing a racially exclusionary worldview.

He also urged non-white employees at Tesla, SpaceX and X, as well as “all decent whites,” to resign and join companies backed by Khosla Ventures, inviting them to share their LinkedIn profiles.

“.@elonmusk doesn’t want MAGA, he wants WAGA or “white America great again” as a racism is great and desirable” paradigm. All non-whites in @tesla, @SpaceX @X etc and all decent whites should quit and join our portfolio. Email us your linkedin!” Khosla wrote.

.@elonmusk doesn't want MAGA, he wants WAGA or "white America great again" as a racism is great and desirable" paradigm. All non-whites in @tesla, @SpaceX@X etc and all decent whites should quit and join our portfolio. Email us your linkedin! https://t.co/NmbM19AnnC

— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) January 27, 2026

Musk replied sharply, calling Khosla “pompous,” and rejected accusations of racism.

“Vinod, you’re not just such a pompous that you tried to stop the public from using a public beach near your house, you’ve also gone full...,” he wrote.

Musk also said his partner, Shivon Zilis, is half Indian and noted that his eldest son with her is named in honor of renowned Indian-American physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

Vinod, you’re not just such a pompous asshole that you tried to stop the public from using a public beach near your house, you’ve also gone full retard.

My partner, Shivon, is half Indian and my eldest son with her is named in honor of the great Indian physicist Chandrasekhar.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 27, 2026

Zilis, a Canadian technology executive and venture capitalist, was born in 1986 to a Punjabi Indian mother and a Canadian father. She has previously worked at IBM, Bloomberg Beta and OpenAI, and currently holds a senior role at Neuralink. She and Musk have four children together.