In an age when more Americans than ever are choosing to remain childless, Elon Musk is treating every birth like a mission, every child like a seed of survival, and every woman he partners with as part of an emergency plan to rescue the future of civilization.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO—father to at least 14 publicly acknowledged children—has long warned of a threat he deems greater than climate change or war: population collapse.

Now, with new data confirming a sharp rise in the number of Americans who simply don’t want children, Musk is doubling down on what he sees as humanity’s only hope—himself and his offspring.

The numbers are stark. A study conducted by Michigan State University has revealed that the percentage of U.S. adults who identify as “childfree by choice” has more than doubled in the past two decades—from 14% in 2002 to 29% in 2023.

At the same time, the number of non-parents planning to have children dropped from 79% to just 59%. This isn’t a slow drift—it’s a cultural shift, one that, to Elon Musk, signals nothing less than the impending extinction of the human race.

While most demographers view falling birth rates as a complex social phenomenon tied to economic pressure, climate anxiety, and gender equality, Musk has a much darker, and more urgent, interpretation. In his eyes, this decline is “the greatest risk to civilization”, and the only way to reverse it is to start having more babies—now, and fast.

Preferably, intelligent babies. Preferably, his own.

Musk’s solution? Not a public policy initiative. Not a social campaign.

His answer is deeply personal and radically individualistic: he is actively producing children with selected women, forming what many have begun to call his “child legion”—a term he himself reportedly used in private communications. According to multiple sources, Musk has approached this mission with the same intensity he brings to space colonization and AI regulation.

In texts exchanged with partners like Ashley St. Clair, Musk has described the urgency to “reach legion-level before the apocalypse.” In his worldview, we aren’t decades away from collapse—we are racing against the clock.

And the clock is ticking. According to the CDC, U.S. birth rates declined 3% in 2023, marking the second consecutive year of decline following a brief uptick in 2021. From 2014 to 2020, the rate dropped by 2% each year.

The trend is consistent, and it mirrors what Musk has feared for years: a shrinking, aging population with not enough young people to sustain the economy or preserve culture.

To Musk, this isn’t theory—it’s action. He has children with at least four different women, including pop star Grimes, Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, and influencer Ashley St. Clair.

But insiders say the number may be even higher, and not all births are publicly acknowledged. His strategy goes beyond traditional parenting. In some cases, he’s offered to be a sperm donor with “no romance, just sperm.” In others, he’s allegedly proposed using surrogates to speed up reproduction.

His fixation isn’t just about having kids—it’s about having the right kind of kids. Musk has repeatedly stated that intelligent people must reproduce, or the world will be left to decay in the hands of the indifferent and unqualified.

This perspective, deeply aligned with a rising “pronatalist” ideology among wealthy elites, reflects a blend of genetic ambition and social engineering. He has encouraged educated women like Zilis—a Yale graduate and former board member of OpenAI—to have children with him, believing that together they can contribute to a smarter future.

Musk doesn’t just preach this belief—he practices it. He often speaks about the future as if he’s one of the few left responsible for ensuring its existence.

At the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, he warned of a looming “mass extinction” caused not by war or disease, but by the slow disappearance of newborns. “If you don’t make new humans,” Musk said, “there’s no humanity, and all the policies in the world don’t matter.”

He’s even suggested that countries should treat birthrate as the most urgent national crisis, urging governments to incentivize childbirth and remove societal stigmas around large families. But while many world leaders talk, Musk acts—through his own growing family.

And his urgency is only rising. The MSU study revealed that among adults choosing to be childfree, 51% were female and 72% were white, groups that historically formed the backbone of Western population growth.

Musk has expressed concern that developed nations like the U.S., Japan, and much of Europe are collapsing demographically while populations in the Global South continue to rise. He has warned that this imbalance could lead to economic destabilization, cultural shifts, and social collapse.

His solution? Beat the trend with volume.

What’s perhaps most revealing is how Musk manages this project—not as a father in the traditional sense, but as a kind of futuristic patriarch overseeing a long-term, intergenerational vision. He reportedly prefers private agreements, often bound by non-disclosure clauses, and offers large sums of money in exchange for silence and control.

Ashley St. Clair, for example, alleged that Musk offered her $15 million and $100,000 per month to stay quiet about their child until he turned 21.

This level of control isn’t accidental. Musk’s longtime fixer, Jared Birchall, reportedly told St. Clair that Musk values “privacy and confidentiality above all else” and that “benefits flow when people do good work.” It’s a statement that frames parenting not as a relationship, but as a job. A contribution to a mission. A merit-based service to a future cause.

But even as Musk ramps up his baby-making initiative, cracks are beginning to show. His ex-partner Grimes has criticized him for parading their son, “X,” on television during political appearances.

She has also publicly begged him for help during a medical emergency, citing his emotional unavailability. Meanwhile, Musk’s own daughter, Vivian Wilson, has cut ties with him entirely, citing his refusal to accept her gender identity.

And yet, Musk presses forward—because to him, this isn’t about family. It’s about species survival. He views every new child as a soldier in the coming struggle for humanity’s future. Every birth is a bulwark against demographic doom.

It’s unclear whether Musk’s plan will have a lasting impact on global trends. Many experts argue that birthrate decline is tied to systemic factors, not personal choices. Others worry that Musk’s ideology flirts dangerously with eugenics, selectively choosing who should reproduce and under what conditions.

But one thing is certain: in a world where more and more people are deciding not to have children, Elon Musk is making it his life’s mission to do the opposite—with intensity, strategy, and unstoppable force.

And as he’s said many times, “Mark these words: population collapse is the biggest risk civilization faces.” For Musk, the warning isn’t theoretical—it’s deeply personal, and the answer, he believes, is already sleeping in nurseries that bear his name.