- Tech titans like Elon Musk want to counteract effects of population decline by having lots of kids.
- Some hope that their children will be instrumental in preventing existential threats.
There's a new trend quietly taking off in wealthy tech and venture-capitalist circles: having lots and lots of children.
Elon Musk, who has fathered 10 known children with three women (including twins last year with one of his employees), is the highest-profile figure currently associated with this movement. But tech-industry insiders say that so-called pronatalist rhetoric is spreading at intimate gatherings among some of the most powerful figures in America.
Many pronatalists fear that falling birth rates in certain developed countries like the United States and most of Europe will lead to the extinction of cultures, the breakdown of economies, and, ultimately, the collapse of civilization. They also believe that it is their responsibility to counteract this trend by producing the kind of genetically superior offspring who will be equipped to tackle the existential threats of the future.
Some of this thinking traces back to a philosophical movement called longtermism, which has recently captivated the wealthy tech elite. Nick Bostrom, one of the founding fathers of longtermism, wrote that he worried declining fertility among "intellectually talented individuals" could lead to the demise of "advanced civilized society." Émile P. Torres, a former longtermist philosopher who has become one of the movement's most outspoken critics, put it more bluntly: "The longtermist view itself implies that really, people in rich countries matter more."
One source who worked closely with Musk for several years told Insider that he's "very serious about the idea that your wealth is directly linked to your IQ." The source added that Musk urged "all the rich men he knew" to have as many children as possible.
In many ways, pronatalism appeals to Silicon Valley's preoccupation with legacy. In the 2010s, the longevity craze swept Silicon Valley, and industry titans like Peter Thiel, 55, Sergey Brin, 49, and Larry Ellison, 78, poured billions of dollars into biotech companies they thought could help them defy death.
But as the Thiels and Ellisons of the world get older, the chance of radical life extension in their lifetimes becomes more unlikely. So some are turning to the next best thing: having lots of children, and funding new fertility technologies that one founder said are "reinventing reproduction."
For people who believe deeply in the genetic heritability of traits, passing on what they see as their superior DNA can be the ultimate path to influence.
"The person of this subculture really sees the pathway to immortality as being through having children," said Simone Collins, a venture capitalist who cofounded the nonprofit initiative Pronatalist.org.