The Journal. · The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

Fertility Inc.: One Dad, One Hundred Babies

March 20, 2026·26 min·2 clips

Clerks in an LA court noticed one man's name on at least four parentage petitions for unborn surrogate babies.

The episode opens with court clerks in an LA family court noticing that a single man named Shu Bo had filed at least four simultaneous parentage petitions for unborn children carried by surrogates, and that he already had or was in the process of having eight more, for a total of at least 12 children. When WSJ reporters began investigating, they learned this was part of a broader pattern involving a small number of Chinese ultra-wealthy clients seeking to have ten, twenty, or even one hundred children through the American surrogacy system. Industry insiders, including concierge operator Nathan Zhang, described the Elon Musk effect, with wealthy Chinese entrepreneurs citing Musk's 14 children as a behavioral model. Zhang himself received an inquiry from a potential client who wanted 200 children and said his sister would care for them, which led Zhang to cap his own service at three children per client. The episode explains the full operational chain: sperm and eggs collected in Hong Kong or Japan, shipped to US IVF clinics, transferred to California surrogates, babies picked up at hospitals not by parents but by credentialed baby couriers, housed in nanny facilities for months, and then transported to China once travel documents are ready, with US citizenship automatically conferred by birth on American soil. The Shu Bo family court hearing is described in detail: he attended remotely from China, told the judge he wanted 20 boys because they are superior to girls, that he planned for them to inherit his business empire, and that he had not yet visited the children he already had because his work was too busy. The judge was reportedly unimpressed. Shu Bo's company responded to the WSJ's publication by calling the newspaper a rumor monger and threatening a social media retaliation campaign. The episode frames the story as an accountability failure of a multi-billion dollar industry operating without any federal oversight.

As heard by us

A sharp case study of surrogacy, money, citizenship, and the thin guardrails around a costly fertility system.

The Journal examines how a routine LA parentage filing turned into a revealing look at cross-border surrogacy. Court clerks noticed Shu Bo's name on at least four parentage petitions for unborn children carried by surrogates, then found he already had, or was in the process of…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a court clerk's red flag to open into surrogacy, money, and parental rights.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Journal.