Elon Musk is named Time Magazine’s 2021 Person of the Year

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Elon Musk has been named Time magazine’s 2021 Person of the Year. 

‘Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than @elonmusk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too,’ tweeted Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal in announcing the news. 

‘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,’ Felsenthal said. 

The world’s richest man was bestowed the annual honor after a year of selling off his possessions, launching rockets into space, inventing new driverless cars, sharing his Asperger’s diagnosis while hosting Saturday Night Live and influencing the stock market with this tweets among many other headlines he’s made this year.  

Musk began dating Grimes in 2018, confirming their relationship on the MET Gala red carpet. The couple welcomed their first child, and Musk’s seventh, in May 2020. 

But in September the couple announced that they are ‘semi-separated’ with Grimes staying in Los Angeles as Musk moved his personal and company headquarters to Texas.  

‘We weren’t seeing each other that much, and I think this is to some degree a long-term thing, because what she needs to do is mostly in L.A. or touring, and my work is mostly in remote locations like this,’ he told Time Magazine. 

Musk shared that he does not have new girlfriend and he and Grimes remain good friends as they co-parent their child X AE A-Xii.

‘This place is basically like a technology monastery, you know. There are some women here, but not many. And it’s remote.’ 

One of the reason’s Musk moved to the Lone Stare state appeared to be his disapproval of California’s strict COVID mandates. While confirming that he and his eligible children are vaccinated, Musk has downplayed the seriousness of the deadly virus and broken regulations to keep his plants open throughout the pandemic. 

He believes in vaccines saying ‘the science is unequivocal’ but does not approve of vaccine mandates. 

‘You are taking a risk, but people do risky things all the time,’ speaking of the unvaccinated but he still believes that being vaccinated should be a personal choice. 

‘I believe we’ve got to watch out for the erosion of freedom in America,’ he said.

While still fighting for freedoms in America and working to make Earth more sustainable, Musk still has his sights set on Mars. 

‘And the next really big thing is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring the animals and creatures of Earth there. Sort of like a futuristic Noah’s ark. We’ll bring more than two, though—it’s a little weird if there’s only two.’ 

He’s also looking at the moon as he plans to touch down within the next three years. 

‘I think we can do a loop around the moon maybe as soon as 2023,’ he said. 

And moving to Mars isn’t far off in his mind either. ‘I’ll be surprised if we’re not landing on Mars within five years,’ he said.  

As of Monday, Musk has a net worth of $265.4 billion. 

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO made history several times this year including SpaceX’s September launch of the first all-civilian crew into space. The aerospace company also won a $3 billion contract with NASA- sparking a feud with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Tesla announced their plans to create a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence in 2022 and penned a deal with Hertz and Uber to make 100,000 Tesla’s available to rent. 

This partnership sent Tesla’s stock to shoot up making the CEO’s net worth jump to $302 billion, making him the first person to ever be worth more than $300 billion and richer than some countries.  

This year, Musk began endorsing bitcoin and influencing its price in the stock market while pushing into the mainstream.  

Musk is constantly keeping the world updated on his plans and eccentric ideas by posting bizarre Twitter rants to his 65.8million followers. Earlier this year, the billionaire tweeted: ‘I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no home.’

He followed through with his pledge. Earlier this month, Musk sold ‘last remaining house’, selling his Silicon Valley estate for $30 million. 

Musk now lives in a home he rents worth $50,000 in Boca Chica, Texas, near his Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Starbase rocket manufacturing plant, where he moved last year.

‘My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though,’ Musk tweeted. 

His most recent viral tweet was posted on December 9, when the mogul said he is ‘thinking of’ quitting his jobs and becoming an influencer. 

It came as Musk, who is the richest man in the world, sold another 934,091 shares in electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla worth almost $1 billion. 

‘Thinking of quitting my jobs and becoming an influencer full-time wdyt [what do you think],’ Musk said in the tweet, without elaborating. 

It was not immediately clear if Musk, a prolific user of the social media platform, was being serious about quitting his jobs.

Musk, who is also the founder and CEO of rocket company SpaceX, said during a conference call in January that he expects to be the CEO of Tesla for ‘several years’.

Last month, he asked his followers on Twitter whether he should sell 10 per cent of his stake in the electric-car maker, to which the majority agreed. He has sold shares worth nearly $12 billion since.  

US securities filings that were publicized on December 9, revealed that Musk has sold another 934,091 shares of the electric vehicle maker worth $963.2million.

He also exercised stock options to buy 2.17 million shares of Tesla, according to the filings.

On December 2, he sold another 934,091 shares of the electric vehicle maker worth $1.01billion to meet his tax obligations related to the exercise of options to buy 2.1 million shares.

He had already sold $930million in shares to meet tax withholding obligations related to the exercise of stock options, US securities filings showed last month.

Musk sold 934,091 shares after exercising options to buy $2.1billion worth of the stock on November 15. The sale was ‘solely to satisfy the reporting person’s tax withholding obligations related to the exercise of stock options,’ the filings said.

In a flurry of sales over the six trading days before, Musk sold a total of $7.8 billion worth of Tesla stock, and not all of the sales cited tax withholding requirements.

Musk’s recent purge of his Tesla shares come as whistleblowers say he misled buyers and undermined safety with an Autopilot driving system that was previously blamed for fatal crashes. 

The former workers have come forward with damning allegations that the world’s second richest man contributed to the risks posed by the Autopilot system deaths because of Musk’s desire to use only cameras and ditch sensors.

At least 10 people have been killed in eight accidents in which Tesla’s Autopilot was engaged since 2016, according to reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency.

‘Our intent with Tesla was always that we would serve as an example to the car industry, and hope that they also make electric cars so that we can accelerate the transition to sustainable energy,’ Musk told Time days after the news of the whistleblowers accusations broke.