Elon Musk, father of 9, says friends have suggested he have 500 kids — but he thinks that would be 'a bit weird'

• Elon Musk said he's open to having more children in a new interview with the Financial Times.
• Though some friends have suggested he have 500 children, Musk said that would be "a bit weird."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he's not opposed to having more children in a new interview with the Financial Times published Friday.

The father of nine told the outlet's editor, Roula Khalaf, that while some friends have proposed he have as many as 500 kids, he thinks that would be a "bit weird," and added that he will only reproduce to the point where he can be a good dad.

Musk has nine living children, including a set of triplets and two sets of twins. His first child, Nevada, died soon after birth from sudden infant death syndrome.

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Musk emphasized in the interview that he is not expecting a baby anytime soon, and shut down gossip that he had purchased a fertility clinic to advance his population growth goals, according to the report.

A day after Insider reported that Musk had twins with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, the billionaire tweeted, "doing my best to help the under population crisis," and that "a collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far."

Musk has long been sounding the alarm on a potential population collapse, a problem he has said is a bigger risk to civilization than global warming. Some experts disagree, telling Insider that the global population is still growing, and while aging populations do pose societal challenges in select countries, the answer isn't to hike up birth rates.

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2022

"Global population decline is therefore still some way off, and is likely to happen gradually when it does take place," said Professor Alice Reid, director of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure. "This can hardly be seen as a catastrophe for civilization."

According to Musk, one thing that's not a solution to a potential decline in population is to lengthen the human lifespan, per the Financial Times.

"It's important that people die. How long would you have liked Stalin to live?" he told the outlet.