Elon Musk named Time magazine person of the year

Washington: Time magazine on Monday named Tesla chief and space entrepreneur Elon Musk as its person of the year, citing his embodiment of the technological shifts but also troubling trends reshaping people’s lives.

Musk -- who overtook Amazon founder Jeff Bezos this year to become the world’s wealthiest person -- wields impact on Earth with his Tesla electric car company and beyond our planet with his SpaceX rockets.

"Musk’s rise coincides with broader trends of which he and his fellow technology magnates are part cause and part effect," Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote. Among those trends, Felsenthal listed "the continuing decline of traditional institutions in favor of individuals; government dysfunction that has delivered more power and responsibility to business and chasms of wealth and opportunity."

Time editors have previously defined the title -- which last year went to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris -- as going to people who "embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse."

In October, Musk’s electric car company’s valuation soared above a trillion dollars, and SpaceX has teamed up with US space agency NASA to launch various missions including a test run of protecting Earth from an asteroid. The brash South African-born 50-year-old has seen his wealth soar during the pandemic to over $250 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.