The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder has earned another distinction.
Elon Musk is Time's Person of the Year. The founder and CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX was given the magazine's top honor of the year, for both his technological innovations and public persona.
In his private life, Musk made headlines this year after he went public with his and Grimes' "semi-separated" status. The pair was first linked in 2018, and welcomed their son, X Æ A-Xii, in 2020.
"Grimes and I are, I’d say, probably semi-separated," Musk tells 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."
Musk has yet to enter a new relationship, quipping to the magazine that his SpaceX launch site in Texas "is basically like a technology monastery."
Musk is fully focused on his companies, as SpaceX eyes the goal of landing on Mars "within five years."
"The goal overall has been to make life multi-planetary and enable humanity to become a spacefaring civilization," the 50-year-old billionaire says. "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."
As for Tesla, the company that's largely responsible for making electric vehicles popular, Musk isn't concerned with its profitability going forward, as it has already accomplished what Musk hoped it would.
"If somebody makes better cars than we do, and they then sell more cars than we do, I think that’s totally fine," he says. "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 technology."
When it comes to his vision of the world as a whole, Musk says that he imagines a place where there's "plenty for everyone, essentially."
"There’s not necessarily anyone who’s the boss of you. I don’t mean to suggest chaos, but rather that you’re not under anyone’s thumb," Musk says. "So you have the freedom to do whatever you’d like to do, provided it does not cause harm to others."
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