The magazine said that he had been chosen for his work in space as well as on electric cars, as well as his plans to take humanity to Mars and his interest in cryptocurrency. It also noted in its announcement that Mr Musk “also likes to live-tweet his poops”, thought to be a first for a Time “Person of the Year”.
“For creating solutions to an existential crisis, for embodying the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans, for driving society’s most daring and disruptive transformations, Elon Musk is TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year,” the magazine wrote in its announcement.
Time has been running the award since 1927, with recent winners including Greta Thunberg, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It has often stressed that the award does not necessarily serve as an endorsement of its recipient, but a recognition of their influence – though the announcement of Mr Musk was accompanied by a glowing profile on Time’s website.
The profile said that Mr Musk “bends governments and industry to the force of his ambition”. It noted that a few years ago he was often mocked, but had come to see his private rocket company SpaceX awarded Nasa contracts and his Twitter account help decide the fortunes of the stock market.
Photo – Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk . EPA-EFE/ALEXANDER BECHER
