Elon Musk named Time magazine person of the year

The brash South African-born 50-year-old overtook space race rival and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person in 2021

He is known to move markets with a single tweet, and Tesla’s valuation soared above a trillion dollars in October

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk visits the construction site for the company’s Gigafactory in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany in August. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:50am, 14 Dec 2021Updated: 2:44am, 14 Dec 2021

Time magazine on Monday named Tesla founder and space entrepreneur Elon Musk as its person of the year, capping a roller-coaster 2021 for the technology magnate.

The brash South African-born 50-year-old with grand ambition overtook space race rival and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person this year.

In October his electric car company’s valuation soared above a trillion dollars, and throughout the year his company SpaceX has teamed up with US space agency Nasa to launch various missions including smashing a rocket into an asteroid in a test run for redirecting any future Earth-bound space rock.

“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 winner.

Musk has appeared ever-present in American culture in recent years. He has amassed 66 million Twitter followers and guest-hosted the famed late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live in May.