US magazine
“Time” names Elon Musk Personality of the Year 2021: “Few people have more influence”
Elon Musk, here on a visit to the Tesla plant in Grünheide, has been named Personality of the Year by “Time”
© P. Pleul / DPA
Elon Musk has been named Personality of the Year 2021 by the US magazine “Time”. The title has gone to those people who had the greatest influence on the news during the year since 1927.
Eccentric billionaire, dazzling electric car and space pioneer: Elon Musk has been named Personality of the Year 2021 by the US magazine “Time”. “Few people have more influence on life on earth and potentially outside of the earth than Elon Musk,” said “Time” editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal on Monday.
The magazine honors the 50-year-old founder of the electric car maker Tesla and the space company SpaceX for “creating solutions to an existential crisis, embodying the possibilities and dangers of the age of technology titans and driving forward the most daring and sweeping transformations of society”.
The South African-born Musk had replaced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world this year thanks to the massive price gains in Tesla shares. Forbes magazine currently estimates his fortune at $ 265 billion – around 234 billion euros. Tesla’s market value exceeded $ 1 trillion in October.
In an Instagram post about the honor, the magazine writes: Many people are said to be bigger than life. However, few would deserve it. Musk is one of the few for “Time”. “Just a few years ago, Musk was being ridiculed as a crazy con artist who was on the verge of bankruptcy,” the magazine explains. He continued: “Today, this shy South African with Asperger’s Syndrome, who survived a brutal childhood and personal tragedy, is making governments and industry bow to the power of his ambitions.
Elon Musk: celebrated genius, feared provocateur
“Our intention with Tesla was always to serve as a role model for the auto industry and to hope that they also build electric cars so that we can accelerate the transition to sustainable energy,” Musk told Time.
The space company SpaceX flies astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and works with the US space agency Nasa on other projects. The entrepreneur also speaks of wanting to colonize Mars.
Musk is celebrated by many as a genius and visionary. However, he also repeatedly creates negative headlines with provocative tweets.
The “Time” magazine has chosen the “Personality of the Year” since 1927. The title goes to people who made the biggest impact on the news during the year. Last year the title went to today’s US President Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris.