Time magazine named Tesla CEO Elon Musk its 2021 Person of the Year, calling him “clown, genius, fearless, visionary, industrialist, showman.”
Musk, who is also the founder and CEO of the space exploration company SpaceX, recently surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world by rising Tesla’s price, which brings his net worth to about 300,000 million dollars. Musk owns about 17% of Tesla shares, which were selling for nearly $ 1,000 each on Monday.
Time cited the breadth of Musk’s efforts, from his founding of SpaceX in 2002 to his involvement in creating the alternative energy company SolarCity, as well as Tesla, the world’s most valuable automobile company.
The magazine also pointed to the influence Musk has over an army of loyal followers (and investors) on social media, where he attacks the powerful and also regulators trying to control an executive who is far from traditional. In front of his 66 million followers on Twitter, he offers extravagant assistance to the world and drives even his own followers and investors crazy by shaking up the markets.
Though it only became profitable in recent years, Tesla is by far the most valuable auto company in the world, and at one point this year it crossed the trillion-dollar market capitalization threshold. Detroit heavyweights Ford and General Motors are worth less than $ 200 billion combined.
Musk said last month that SpaceX will attempt to put its futuristic bullet-shaped starship into orbit in January. NASA has contracted with SpaceX to use Starship to bring astronauts to the lunar surface beginning in 2025. Musk said he plans to use the reusable spacecraft to eventually get people to Mars.
Time highlighted Musk’s recent admission to his 66 million Twitter followers that half of his tweets were “made on a porcelain throne.” In the profile on the provocative CEO, Time went on to chronicle one such storm of tweets from the bathroom in detail before concluding: “This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit.”