According to the Associated Press, Time magazine named Tesla CEO Elon Musk the 2021 Person of the Year and called him a "clown, genius, leader, visionary, industrialist, performer."
Musk named Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2021
Musk is also the founder and CEO of space exploration company SpaceX, and he recently overtook Amazon founder Bezos to become the world's richest man as Tesla's rising stock price pushed its net worth to around $300 billion. He holds about 17% of Tesla's shares, and on Monday (13th) Tesla shares were close to $1,000 per share.
Time magazine cited areas of Musk's efforts, from SpaceX, which he founded in 2002, to SolarCity, an alternative energy company he co-founded, and Tesla, the world's largest car company by market capitalization. The weekly emphasized that being named "Person of the Year" is not an award, but rather "a recognition of the people who have the greatest impact on the events of the year, for better or worse."
Time also said Musk has a strong influence on social media over an army of loyal followers (and investors), where he has slammed powerful figures and regulators who have sought to restrain the executive, who is far from tradition. In front of 66 million followers on Twitter, he offered the world "quirky help" and even "disrupted the market," which drove his own fans and investors crazy.
Although Tesla has only started to make a profit in recent years, it is clearly the world's largest car company by market capitalization, breaking through the $1 trillion market capitalization threshold this year. Detroit's heavyweight companies Ford and General Motors are worth less than $200 billion combined.
Musk said last month that SpaceX would try to send its futuristic bullet-shaped starship into Earth orbit next January. Nasa has signed a contract with SpaceX to use Starship to send astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2025. Musk said he plans to use reusable spacecraft to eventually send humans to Mars.
Time highlighted that Musk recently admitted to his 66 million Twitter followers that half of his tweets were "written on the toilet." In a profile to the controversial CEO, Time magazine detailed one of the toilet tweet storms and then concluded: "This is the man who is eager to save our planet and build a new habitat for us." ”