Elon Musk has once again stirred conversation with his candid views—this time, on sex and its purpose. The billionaire tech mogul, known for his outspoken opinions, recently resurfaced in a 2019 interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, where he labeled sex without the goal of procreation as “absurd.”
“A massive amount of thinking, like truly stupendous amount of thinking, has gone into sex — without purpose, without procreation,” Musk said in the interview. “It’s a bit silly, so why are you doing it? Because it makes the limbic system happy — that’s why. But it’s pretty absurd really.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who has publicly acknowledged fathering 13 children and is reportedly involved in a legal battle regarding a 14th child, has been vocal about his fears of a population decline for years. In 2022, he tweeted that a falling birthrate poses a greater threat to humanity than global warming:
“Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming,” Musk wrote. “Mark these words. (And I do think global warming is a major risk).”
Musk’s views on the importance of reproduction were underscored again in private messages recently made public during a legal dispute with political commentator Ashley St Clair, the alleged mother of his 13th child. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had offered a financial settlement—including $15 million and $100,000 in monthly support—in exchange for her silence, which St Clair declined.
One message, reportedly sent by Musk during her pregnancy, read: “To reach legion-level before the apocalypse, we will need to use surrogates.”
As comments on Fridman’s YouTube channel joked about Musk’s remarks, others saw it as another example of the billionaire’s unique worldview, one that combines scientific thinking with a deep concern about humanity’s future survival. Musk continues to stress that declining birthrates—not overpopulation—pose the true existential crisis.
