'Big Short' investor takes a jab at Elon Musk's views on declining birth rates: 'that doesn't mean bosses should sleep with subordinates to try to remedy the situation'

Grace Kay
Thu, July 7, 2022 

Michael Burry and Elon MuskGetty

Michael Burry appeared to call out Elon Musk for fathering children with a subordinate.

Insider reported the billionaire quietly fathered a set of twins with a Neuralink executive.

"Doing my best to help the under-population crisis," Musk said on Twitter.

Michael Burry appeared to take a swipe at Elon Musk on Thursday after it was revealed the richest man in the world had quietly fathered a set of twins with an executive at one of his companies.

"Babies born in the US are at 1950 levels, but that doesn't mean that bosses should sleep with subordinates to try to remedy the situation," Burry tweeted. "Bigger problem is nuclear families are at 1959 levels, and woke doctrine wants it lower. More babies in broken families not the way."



Burry is most famously known for earning $800 million by shorting the housing market in 2008 — a phenomenon that was publicized in the Hollywood hit "The Big Short." More recently, the investor has said there will be a consumer recession in December.

While the "Big Short" investor did not directly name Musk in his recent tweet, the comment came only a few hours after the Tesla CEO tweeted about declining birth rates.

"Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis," Musk said on Twitter in an apparent response to the news of his relationship with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. "A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far."



Since as early as 2017, Musk has repeatedly warned that declining birth rates could cause civilization to collapse. The US birth rate has fallen about 20% since 2007.

While Burry has not been known to comment on underpopulation, he's no stranger to Musk. The investor famously shorted Tesla in 2021, saying the electric-car maker's stock would collapse much like the housing bubble.

The investor is one of many people to comment on Musk's relationship with Zilis.

The news of Musk's relationship with the Neuralink executive comes after Insider reported in May that SpaceX paid a company flight attendant $250,000 to stay quiet after she alleged that Musk exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, even offering to buy her a horse in exchange.

"More confirmation of a totally normal and healthy workplace for women," Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo, tweeted. She was the first woman to speak out against Cuomo in the sexual harassment scandal which ultimately ended in his resignation.

Several major CEOs have been ousted for engaging in relationships with subordinates. In 2019, McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook was dismissed after it was revealed he'd had a consensual relationship with an employee. Similarly, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich resigned in 2018 over a consensual relationship with a staffer.

Last year, the Microsoft founder Bill Gates resigned from the company's board following an investigation into an extramarital affair with a Microsoft employee.