Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, said: “The poor should have kids so my son’s factories have workers.”

The quote was fabricated by social media users as a sarcastic take on Maye Musk’s views on the importance of having 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren regardless of the expense.

In December 2024, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, appeared in an interview on Fox News in which she opined on the importance of having 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren despite financial hardship, saying “𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren add value to your life.” Afterward, people on social media poked fun at her advice. Some did so by sharing a remark she never made.

According to popular Reddit and X posts, Musk allegedly said, “The poor should have kids so my son’s factories have workers.”

Musk did not utter those words. The fabricated quote turned up on social media, and people critical of her shared it as a sarcastic jab at her views. As such, we rate this quote as misattributed.

She appeared on Fox News with host Rachel Campos-Duffy on Dec. 15. At one point, Campos-Duffy brought up how “the 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 rate, which your son talks a lot about, it’s declining,” and prompted Musk to respond to concerns about the financial burden associated with having 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren.

These are Musk’s actual words transcribed from the video:

Having 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren is the greatest gift in your life. When Elon was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧, we were in a small two bedroom apartment overlooking a garage. When Kimbal was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧, we moved to a two bedroom apartment with a view. When Tosca was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧, we moved to a two bedroom house. All in the same area.… https://t.co/KB0gwqkmDQ

— Maye Musk (@mayemusk) December 6, 2024

When I had my 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, we were in a two-bedroom small apartment overlooking a garage. Then the next year, I had a second 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥, we had an apartment with a view. By the third 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥, we could get a two-bedroom house. As you move on, you start doing better and better. You don’t have to go to the movies, you don’t have to go out to dinner. […] The most wonderful gifts you could ever have is the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren.

At no point in the interview did Musk say or imply that poor people should have 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren to work at her son’s factories. Still, many online said her views were out of touch with reality.

This wasn’t the first time she espoused these views. On Dec. 5, 2024, she responded to an X thread that argued it was too expensive to have kids:

Having 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren is the greatest gift in your life. When Elon was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧, we were in a small two bedroom apartment overlooking a garage. When Kimbal was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧, we moved to a two bedroom apartment with a view. When Tosca was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧, we moved to a two bedroom house. All in the same area. We didn’t go out for dinner nor to the movies. As my former-husband was promoted at the engineering firm, we upgraded our lifestyle. He then opened his own engineering firm, and we could move to a beautiful home in a better area. Children give you your greatest joy in the world. I never felt like I was sacrificing anything. As soon as I could afford some help in the house, I opened my dietetics practice in my home. My career was on hold for a short while, but so worth it. Have 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, add value to your life.

Elon Musk has long been preoccupied with “low 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 rates” and has fathered at least a dozen 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren with different women. He is a proponent of the conservative pronatalist movement — described as an attitude or policy that is “pro-𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡,” encourages reproduction and exalts parenthood — and has called low 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 rates “the biggest danger civilization faces.”

While it’s true 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 rates are declining in wealthy countries, governmental policy changes have not been shown to meaningfully sway large numbers of people to have more 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren.