On Monday, we learned that Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year. The journalists evoke an extraordinary "marker of influence" and recount the various exploits achieved by his companies during the year 2021.
Clown and genie, “edgelord (individual whose attitude and speeches are perceived as eccentric in order to stand out, editor's note), visionary, industrialist and showman... Time evokes a crazy hybrid of Thomas Edison, PT Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Doctor Manhattan of Watch men. While SpaceX dominates the US space market, Tesla (now valued at over a trillion dollars) controls two-thirds of the electric vehicle market.
With a net worth of over $250 billion , these accomplishments made Musk the wealthiest private citizen in history, at least on paper. And let's not forget his grip on Wall Street, which seems to "shake" with every tweet he tweets.
“Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence on life on Earth than Musk “said Edward Felsenthal, editor and CEO of Time, in a statement. “In 2021, Musk became not only the richest person in the world, but also perhaps the wealthiest example of massive change in our society . »
Among Elon Musk's notable accomplishments this year include the successful landing of one of the Starship prototypes which aims to send humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond. beyond or maintaining access to the International Space Station from the United States thanks to SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket. In April, SpaceX also won the NASA contract to send American astronauts on the Moon for the first time since 1972 as part of the Artemis program .
Time also recalls, among other projects, the launch of the entirely civilian mission Inspiration4, with a charitable vocation.
How many will leave a mark on the world for their contributions rather than their crimes? “Just a few years ago, Musk was derided as a crazed crook on the verge of bankruptcy “, can we still read in description. “Today, this shy South African with Asperger's syndrome who escaped a brutal childhood and overcame personal tragedy bends governments and industry to the force of his ambition ".
You can read Time's full coverage at this link. Elon Musk returns in particular to his Martian ambitions.
Musk's selection as the personality of the year by Time will obviously not be universally hailed . The billionaire entrepreneur was particularly criticized last year for the reopening of a Tesla factory against public health advice during the pandemic or for the deployment of his megaconstellation Starlink likely to interfere with astronomical observations.
Love him or hate him, Elon Musk leaves no one indifferent.
