Elon Musk has been named Time magazine’s 2021 Person of the Year.
The world’s richest man was bestowed the honor after a year of selling off his possessions and moving to Texas, 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.
Musk spoke with Time Magazine and discussed his ‘semi-separated’ status with Grimes, slammed vaccine mandates as an ‘erosion of freedom’ and shared his plans to fly a Noah’s ark spaceship packed full of animals to Mars as he works to colonize the planet.
Talking from his new home state of Texas about his relationship break-down, he told Time: ‘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.’
Time magazine’s Person of the Year has previously been awarded to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (2020), Greta Thunberg (2019), a group of journalists including Jamal Khashoggi (2018), women who spoke out about sexual misconduct including Taylor Swift and Ashley Judd (2017) and Donald Trump (2016)
Musk and Grimes walked the carpet at the 2018 Met Gala together (left) to make their public debut in 2018 but have since ‘semi-separated’ and co-parent their son X AE A-Xii (right)
Musk disclosed that he does not have new girlfriend and he and Grimes remain good friends as they co-parent their child X AE A-Xii.
‘I’m human and all; I’m not a robot, but this place is basically a techno monastery….There are some women here, but not many. And it’s remote.’
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO moved to the small, unincorporated community of Boca Chica, Texas, where the southern SpaceX launch site is located. Tesla has officially moved their headquarters to Austin.
Musk also confirmed that he and his children have been vaccinated, saying ‘the science is unequivocal’ but that he does not approve of vaccine mandates.
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‘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.
One of the reason’s Musk moved to the Lone Stare state was his disapproval of California’s strict COVID mandates. Musk has argued with government officials over mandates and broken regulations to keep his plants open throughout the pandemic.
While fighting for freedoms in America and working to make Earth more sustainable, Musk still has his sights set on Mars.
‘The goal overall has been to make life multi-planetary and enable humanity to become a spacefaring civilization,’ Musk said of his continued plan to colonize the planet.
‘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 pushing cryptocurrency into the mainstream, which he can do with a single tweet.
SpaceX conducted many historic launches this year including the world’s first all-civilian crew (Pictured: Musk, age 24, at his computer in 1995)
Musk has recently gone on a spree selling billions of dollars of his stock in Tesla
SpaceX launched several historic flights this year including the first-ever all-civilian space crew (Pictured: Inspiration4 all-civilian crew (from left to right) Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Sian Proctor on board the Crew Dragon module)
Musk moved the SpaceX headquarters to Boca Chica, Texas where he now lives full-time
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 said he was doing it as a way to defuse criticism of his wealth, telling podcast host Joe Rogan last May: ‘I think possessions kinda weigh you down. And they’re kind of an attack vector. People say, ‘Hey, billionaire, you got all this stuff.’ ‘Well, now I don’t have the stuff — now what are you gonna do?”
At the time, Musk owned seven houses in California – six in Los Angeles within walking distance of each other.
He followed through with his pledge. Earlier this month, Musk sold ‘last remaining house’, selling his Silicon Valley estate for $30 million.
He sold the residence for $7.5 million less than the original $37.5 million asking price when it was first listed in June, according to records. He struggled to sell the home, listing it three times before finding a buyer.
Musk had previously said he wanted to sell it to a large family who will live in the home. ‘It’s a special place,’ he tweeted.
The 16,000-square-foot estate features seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a music room, grand ballroom and a cocktail room with retractable library shelves.
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.
Last spring, he fought with California lawmakers over coronavirus restrictions which were preventing him from reopening his Tesla factory in Fremont, near San Francisco.
Elon Musk sold his Silicon Valley estate for $30 million, the last of his seven California homes, and moved to Texas. This 109-year-old European style home sits on 47 acres of land south of San Francisco
The eccentric billionaire sold this 16,000-square-foot estate for $7.5 million less than the original $37.5 million earlier this month
Boxabl has not confirmed whether Musk is living in one of its homes but in November announced it had built a Casita for a ‘high-profile’ and ‘top secret’ customer in Boca Chica
In April branded the lockdown rules fascist and said: ‘Give people back their goddamn freedom.’
Soon afterwards in May he announced that he would move his Tesla headquarters to Texas or Nevada and started allegedly cozying up to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Musk has also been a critic of California’s tax policies and claimed it had developed a ‘winning-for-too-long problem’ that was forcing out the super-rich.
Though Musk has not confirmed the name of the company that made his home, a Boxabl unit appears to be visible on the site of his home on Google Earth.
The company’s homes are tiny but stylish, set up like a studio apartment with an open plan living area, kitchen and bedroom, with an adjacent bathroom.
The properties are assembled from a folded box made of concrete panels and steel.
Teslarati reported that the model Musk, who is said to be worth $167.3 billion, is renting is a mass-produced 20 feet x 20 feet ‘foldable prefabricated home,’ named the Boxabl Casita.
Boxabl has not confirmed whether Musk is living in one of its homes but in November announced it had built a Casita for a ‘high-profile’ and ‘top secret’ customer in Boca Chica.
Musk downsizes to 375-square-foot box in Texas
A model layout of a Boxabl Casita
Elon Musk is believed to be living in a 375-square-foot modular home made by the company Boxabl, according to the Musk fan blog Teslarati and the Houston Chronicle.
He has said that he is renting the home for about $50,000.
Though Musk has not confirmed the name of the company that made his home, a Boxabl unit appears to be visible on the site on Google Earth.
The company’s homes are tiny but stylish, set up like a studio apartment with an open plan living area, kitchen and bedroom, with an adjacent bathroom.
The properties are assembled from a folded box made of concrete panels and steel.
Teslarati reported that the model Musk is renting is a mass-produced 20-foot-by-20-foot ‘foldable prefabricated home,’ named the Boxabl Casita.
Boxabl has not confirmed whether Musk is living in one of its homes but in November announced it had built a Casita for a ‘high-profile’ and ‘top secret’ customer in Boca Chica.
‘My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though,’ he wrote in early June.
‘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.
‘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.
