'My Partner Is Half Indian, Son Named After...': Musk After Khosla Accuses Him Of Promoting ‘WAGA’

Last Updated:January 28, 2026, 09:48 IST

Elon Musk and Vinod Khosla clashed online over the former's comments on white people population, sparking debate on race, 'WAGA' and MAGA.

Elon Musk hits back at billionaire investor Vinod Khosla (R). (Image: Reuters)

Elon Musk has hit back at billionaire investor Vinod Khosla after the latter accused the Tesla and SpaceX chief of promoting what he described as “WAGA" — or “White America Great Again" — instead of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) slogan.

The exchange began after Musk commented on demographic trends, stating on X that white people were becoming a shrinking share of the global population. He was responding to a post claiming that the global white population had declined sharply from 36% in 1900 to about 8% today.

Khosla reacted strongly, alleging that Musk’s remarks reflected a racially motivated worldview. He argued that Musk was not interested in MAGA but in advancing a “white America first" ideology, calling it a dangerous and discriminatory narrative. In a sharply worded post, Khosla even urged non-white employees and what he termed “decent whites" to leave Musk’s companies and instead join firms backed by his investment portfolio.

“Elon Musk 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 and X etc and all decent whites should quit and join our portfolio. Email us your linkedin!," Khosla commented on Musk’s post.

Musk responded by dismissing Khosla’s criticism, noting that his partner, Shivon Alice Zilis, is half Indian and that one of his children has been named in honour of renowned Indian-American physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

“Vinod, you’re not just such a pompous a**hole 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," Mush wrote in response.

Shivon Zilis is a Canadian technology executive and venture capitalist with experience at IBM, Bloomberg Beta, OpenAI and Neuralink. She was born in 1986 to a Punjabi Indian mother and a Canadian father. She and Musk have four children together, including twins and two younger children, one of whom carries a middle name honouring Chandrasekhar.

The online clash has drawn attention to broader debates around race, demographics and political messaging in the United States.

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