Time Int 12.27.2021

DOUBLE ISSUE DEC. 27, 2021 / JAN. 3, 2022

PERSON of Ythe EA R

ELON
MUSK

DEC. 27, 2021 / JAN. 3, 2022

HEROES
OF THE
YEAR

Vaccine Scientists
and the Miracle
of mRNA

Clockwise from top right:

Katalin Kariko,
Barney Graham,
Kizzmekia Corbett and
Drew Weissman

TODAY
TRANSFORMING

ADVERTISEMENT

“It’s no longer about driving.
Thanks to digitalization, it’s about experiences”

HENRIK WENDERS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF AUDI BRAND

In essence, the Audi grandsphere concept car is A dedicated workspace is no longer a static
not just for mobility; it will change how drivers can location. Your personal sphere can transform into
live their lives, spend their time, and design a world an office, allowing for time to be used efficiently
of their own. and inspiration to be seized at every moment.
Conference calls suddenly have a scenic backdrop,
Whilst the impressive and innovative technologies blending the inside and outside together to create
that lie inside the sphere bring the world to life, the a modern workplace.
journey begins with Level 4 driving. This driving
experience is reflected in future technology that Recreation time is now more fluid, too. Drivers can
could make new dimensions of freedom possible, reclaim lost moments and catch up on their favorite
gifting the driver the biggest luxury of all. Time. shows from the comfort of their sphere. Customized
infotainment options are also available, such
The commodity we never seem to have enough of as seamless integration of onboard streaming
becomes abundant as soon as you walk towards customized from each passengers’ favorite music
the Audi grandsphere concept car. and video providers.

Thanks to the integration of 3rd party apps, your Immersive experiences and intuitive usability are
morning routine can begin the moment you step at the core for Audi and the future of travel. Simply
inside. Paired with Level 4 driving, a mode that getting from A to B will be a notion of the past,
transforms the sphere by creating a luxurious space allowing the journey to become its own destination.
without the steering wheel, pedals and displays,
you have the ability to meditate and practice self-
care whilst being transported to your destination.

Concept vehicle shown.
Not available for sale. Specification may vary.

ADVERTISEMENT

Concept vehicle shown.
Not available for sale. Specification may vary.

“The future? We at Audi are shaping it”

HENRIK WENDERS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF AUDI BRAND

The technology available is nothing short make their choice with a simple gesture. the ability to integrate digital services,
of remarkable. The Audi grandsphere concept also the possibilities are nearly endless. The
enables experiences that extend beyond Audi grandsphere concept can design
Eye-tracking redefines the idea of hands- its four doors. At the glance of an eye a spectacular scenic route and provide
free control, allowing the driver to launch and the brush of a button, food can be restaurant or hotel options. The vehicle
the digital services they need for their ordered and tables can be reserved. also takes care of everyday tasks that
journey by simply looking at a menu go beyond the ride itself - picking up
icon, then confirming their selection by By proactively making dining suggestions passengers with information about their
touching a touch-sensitive panel. along the route, the Audi grandsphere current destination and independently
concept seamlessly blends the outside handling parking and charging.
To make adjustments, passengers world with a life created within the
merely have to look at their selection and sphere. Thanks to Audi services and

Concept vehicle shown.
Not available for sale. Specification may vary.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We’re leveraging the technology available today to make
tomorrow brighter, better, more sustainable…”

HENRIK WENDERS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF AUDI BRAND

As with all concept cars, the Audi seamless integration of the customers’ reinvent what concierges do, and
grandsphere concept represents an digital ecosystems, which would allow digitalization that enables Audi
outlook on the future Audi product passengers to bring their favorite apps owners to follow every whim, whether
portfolio, giving us a tantalizing into the car with no smartphone needed, it’s working, relaxing, connecting, or
glimpse into which technologies to the concierge control knob seen in the indulging.
could be introduced in the next few Audi grandsphere concept.
years. At this very moment, the Audi If we’re at the dawn of a new era in
development team is working on a Premium mobility is set to be a luxury mobility, Audi is the light shining
wide range of interfaces to support multifaceted experience with interiors on the horizon. The future is here, and
key technological advancements - from that redefine luxury, services that Audi is leading the way.

The future is here, and Audi is leading the way. More at progress.audi

DEC. 27, 2021 / JAN. 3, 2022

ENTERTAINER
OF THE YEAR

Olivia Rodrigo

DEC. 27, 2021 / JAN. 3, 2022

ATHLETE
OF THE YEAR

Simone Biles

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VOL. 198, NOS. 23–24 | 2021

34 38

The Choice Elon Musk

BY EDWARD BY MOLLY BALL, JEFFREY KLUGER AND
FELSENTHAL ALEJANDRO DE LA GARZA

10 ILLUSTR ATION BY CHARIS TSEVIS FOR TIME

—

CONTENTS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PHOTOGRAPH BY PHOTOGRAPH BY
MATTIA BALSAMINI DJENEBA ADUAYOM KELIA ANNE
FOR TIME
FOR TIME FOR TIME

62

HEROES OF THE YEAR

THE SCIENTISTS WHO CREATED THE
MRNA VACCINES MAY HAVE SAVED THE WORLD

FROM MORE THAN COVID-19

BY ALICE PARK AND JAMIE DUCHARME

78

ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

SIMONE BILES, THE GREATEST GYMNAST OF ALL
TIME, USED HER OLYMPIC PLATFORM

TO SEND A MESSAGE ABOUT WHAT MATTERS

BY ALICE PARK AND SEAN GREGORY

84

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

TEENAGER OLIVIA RODRIGO WROTE A
CONFESSIONAL ALBUM IN HER BEDROOM THAT

BECAME THE SOUNDTRACK OF A RAW YEAR

BY LUCY FELDMAN

101

ENDNOTE

BY WALTER ISAACSON

20 89

The Year In ... Best of Culture

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-n. 46) art. 1 comma 1, DCB Milano, Dir. Resp.: Tassinari Domenico. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing houses. Additional pages of regional editions numbered or allowed for as follows: National S1-S2. Vol. 198, Nos. 3–4 © 2021 TIME Magazine
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12 TIME December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

NYXOAH–
The Sleep Experts

Almost one billion people around the world Oliver Taelman CEO of Nyxoah
suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) —
a disorder occurring when the muscles that
support soft tissues in the throat and tongue
intermittently relax and block a sleeper’s airway.

In its milder form, the condition The success of the trial, says chin and into which a small leadless and financial platform he needs to
is frequently dismissed as an Taelman, is attributable to take Nyxoah to even greater heights.
annoying snoring problem. But in Genio®’s combination of advanced neurostimulator is implanted. This
more severe cases it can become technology and user-friendly “There is a saying in the
a serious, if not fatal, health risk application. Genio® works by battery-free neurostimulator is then investment community that it’s
and is recognized as a global health stimulating the hypoglossal nerve, easier to raise money when your
issue. The race to find a definitive which in turn stimulates the turned on by the patient when bank account is full than when it’s
cure has created a market that was tongue muscle, thereby keeping empty, which is why we decided
valued at $10.5 billion in 2020 the airway open throughout the connected to an activation chip to go ahead with the second IPO
in the United States alone, and and to accelerate our development
has been growing at a compound Robert Taub Chairman, and positioned under the chin through a plans,” he says. “Our ambition is
annual growth rate of 6.3% over the Oliver Taelman CEO, of Nyxoah to become the world’s leading OSA
last five years. disposable patch. solutions provider.”
Leading the pack is the Belgium- night. Until Genio® came along
based health technology specialist with its bilateral stimulation, all The investment community has Nyxoah is well on its way
Nyxoah. Founded in 2009 by remedies had relied on stimulating to demonstrating commercial
chairman Robert Taub and now only one branch of the nerve. been as enthusiastic as the scientific proof of concept in Germany,
managed by CEO Olivier Taelman, Nyxoah’s breakthrough was to find which it considers to be its
the company created Genio®, the a remedy that could stimulate both one. In September 2020, Nyxoah flagship European market. The
world’s first and only battery-free simultaneously. company has also initiated a
leadless and minimally invasive raised $100 million through an “pivotal” study in the U.S.,
neurostimulator designed to give OSA “Right at the start we asked which Taelman expects to lead
sufferers (and their long-suffering ourselves how we could offer our IPO on Euronext, and this past to FDA approval and U.S. market
partners) the best night’s rest. patients the least invasive solution, commercialization.
Nyxoah established itself as but one that could be upgraded July attracted an additional $97.5
a frontrunner in 2019 after it as the technology improves,” says Taelman’s vision for Nyxoah is
put Genio® through the BLAST Taelman. Nyxoah’s answer was million on the Nasdaq. Both retail equally far-reaching, with Genio®
OSA (Bilateral Hypoglossal Nerve to design a system that involves a just a step on a journey rather
Stimulation for Treatment of minor surgical procedure to make and corporate investors clearly than an endpoint. “We would like
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea) trial. The a single incision under the patient’s to create a holistic solution that
results were even more conclusive recognize Genio®’s potential to would begin with a reliable tool for
than either Taub or Taelman could diagnosing OSA sufferers,” he says.
have hoped. Not only did more capture a significant share of this “This would be followed by the
than 80% of participants express therapeutic solution and, finally, by
satisfaction with the Genio® multi-billion-dollar market. a set of monitoring tools that would
system, but the percentage of bed tell us how to adjust the treatment
partners reporting loud snoring and “PUTTING AN IPO to improve the quality of life of our
being forced to leave the room to get TOGETHER IS REALLY patients.”
some sleep decreased from 96% A TEAM EFFORT,”
to 35%. SAYS TAELMAN,
“AND A SUCCESSFUL
ONE HIGHLIGHTS
THE OPERATIONAL
READINESS OF
YOUR ENTIRE
ORGANIZATION. I CAN
ONLY COMPLIMENT
EVERY DEPARTMENT
WITHIN NYXOAH
FOR THE PART THEY
PLAYED. IT TOOK A
LOT OF VERY HARD
WORK.”

The assembled team and the
funds raised through the two IPOs
have given Taelman the operational

Genio® trial results can be seen in the EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY journal: www.erj.ersjournals.com/content/55/1/1901320

hw

w can we deliver
one of the fuels

of the future?

Hydrogen could play a pivotal role in tomorrow’s energy mix, but it is expensive to
transport. How can we make it commercially viable to deliver this clean energy around
the world?

This question powered one of our most ambitious pilot projects to date – a supply
network demonstration covering the complete hydrocarbon value chain,
including the conversion of hydrogen to blue ammonia for safe and cost-effective
shipping. In 2020, in partnership with the Institute of Energy Economics Japan and
our subsidiary SABIC, we successfully shipped forty tons of blue ammonia to Japan
for various cleaner-power generation applications.

Discover how we are catalyzing new pathways to cleaner fuels at
aramco.com/poweredbyhow

FROM THE EDITOR

Behind
The Scenes

in her profile of our 2021 enTerTainer

of the Year Olivia Rodrigo, my colleague Lucy

Feldman made an observation that jumped

out at me. Rodrigo, the 18-year-old pop sensa-

tion whose music has won over audiences of

all ages, “has a gift for picking the best of the

past,” Lucy notes, “and finding just the right

way to situate it in the present.”

It’s a theme that resonates throughout this

issue. Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all

time and our Athlete of the Year, took sports

and the world forward in 2021 by using her

spotlight at the Tokyo

Olympics to stand up

for mental health, and

making sure athletes are

measured by more than

their wins and losses.

The miracle of fast and

effective vaccines that

saved millions of lives

from COVID-19 was the

work of so many scien-

PHOTOGRAPH BY tists over so many years
MARK MAHANEY that we created a new
category to recognize
FOR TIME

them, Heroes of the

Year. The mRNA vaccines available today are

built on the pioneering insights of the past—

and will become the breakthroughs of tomor-

row. Even Elon Musk’s spacefaring adventures

are a direct line from the very first Person of

the Year (then called Man of the Year), Charles

Lindbergh, whom the editors selected in 1927

to commemorate his historic first solo trans-

atlantic airplane flight over the Atlantic.

For us at TIME, it has also been a year of TOP: ELON MUSK SITS FOR MARK
building on the past to forge the future. We de- MAHANEY AT THE SPACEX FACILITY
veloped, like so many of you, a new hybrid ap- IN BOCA CHICA, TEXAS, ON DEC. 3;
proach to work as many of us now ping back BELOW: TIME EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
and forth between our virtual and physical of- EDWARD FELSENTHAL WITH MUSK
fices. We continued to expand our TIME100
franchise with TIME100 Companies and a new
series of TIME100 Talks. We returned to live
events with a gathering in Glasgow for COP26
that brought together climate-change leaders
from around the globe. We created a special
project on racial justice, Visions of Equity, led

16 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

KELIA ANNE
PHOTOGRAPHS
OLIVIA RODRIGO
IN L.A. ON NOV. 22

TIME STAFF MEET
VIRTUALLY TO DISCUSS
THE PERSON OF THE
YEAR SPECIAL ISSUE

MATTIA BALSAMINI
PHOTOGRAPHS
KIZZMEKIA CORBETT
IN BOSTON ON DEC. 3

by staff of color in our newsroom. We helped The ambition of the franchise has grown
lead our industry into the next phase of the In- considerably since Lindbergh graced the cover
ternet with TIMEPieces, an NFT platform for and has become an incredible staffwide effort,
artists. We expanded our digital offerings, with touched in some way by nearly everyone at
more than 100,000 of you now supporting our TIME. The core project is the work of an edi-
journalism by subscribing for full access to torial committee that includes Naina Bajekal,
our site. And our two-year-old Emmy-winning Jenna Caldwell, Elizabeth Murray and Victor
TIME Studios division continued to create Williams and led by executive editor Ben Gold-
new homes for our journalism, with more than berger. “We spent a lot of time thinking about
20 film and television projects set to air on the year through the lens of re-emergence and
leading streaming services and networks. re-evaluation,” says Ben, “which made it a par-
ticularly fascinating process.”
Person of the Year is for us a powerful cap-
stone to the work of the previous 12 months. All of us at TIME thank you for being a part
The process began in early fall, as it always of the TIME family and wish you and your loved
does, with a gathering of our global staff to de- ones the best for 2022.
bate various nominations. But this year we had
an inspiring addition: we were joined at the Edward Felsenthal,
kickoff by 2018 Person of the Year Maria Ressa, editor-in-chief & ceo
the journalist who was awarded the Nobel @efelsenthal
Peace Prize in 2021 for her fearless reporting in
the Philippines.

17

The Power of Cross Generational
Problem Solving

You may be forgiven for thinking that the apocryphal chinese curse “may you live in interesting
times” was coined precisely for our times. Never has it seemed so apt as it does today.

DRAWING ON TRADITIONS

HARMONIZING FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Businesses will mold and evolve to
the values espoused by Generation Z,
creating a new generation of companies
more likely to live harmoniously with the world
and the communities in which they reside, and
not merely for the sake of short term profit.

RETHINKING INTERGENERATIONAL WISDOM

2021 THE YEAR IN

Covers

11

23

4

56

78

1. ‘ VALUABLE 3. ‘MY BIGGEST on Olivia B. Waxman’s 6. ‘I would like for STEPHEN JOSEPH
INSIGHTS FOR HOPE IS THIS July 5/July 12 cover story Mr. Fanone to know SHELLSHEAR, of
OUR TROUBLED COVER MIGHT on the controversy over that his experience Brighton, Queensland,
W O R L D .’ INSPIRE OTHER critical race theory was not in vain ... and Australia, on Ciara
LITTLE GIRLS TO that he is being heard.’ Nugent’s Oct. 11/Oct. 18
JANE MCKINLAY, of New THINK, “I CAN 5. ‘WORKERS profile of the 87-year-old
Orleans, on the Feb. 1/ DO THAT!”’ THAT STRUGGLE KAREN WARTICK, of naturalist
Feb. 8 issue announcing TO PAY BILLS Mesa, Ariz., on Molly Ball’s
the launch of TIME’s REESE WITHERSPOON, ARE FED UP Aug. 23/Aug. 30 profile 8. ‘WE NEED
2030 initiative writing on Instagram HEARING of D.C. police officer A RESET OF
about TIME’s inaugural ABOUT THE Mike Fanone CORPORATE
2. ‘Our treatment of list of the world’s most PAY OF CEOS MORAL VALUES.
the earth is an insult influential companies AND ARE 7. ‘Jane Goodall is one PUBLIC GOOD
to the universe ... of 2021 in the May 10/ DEMANDING of the few who can M AT T E R S .’
a wholesale damning May 17 issue M O R E .’ persuade individuals
of humanity.’ to accept their own CÉLINE GOUNDER,
4. ‘As history and RITA BALLONE, of responsibilities writing on Twitter about
JOHN WAWRZONEK, society continue to Carmichaels, Pa., on the for slowing climate Billy Perrigo’s and
of Northborough, Mass., evolve, so should the Aug. 2/Aug. 9 “Rethinking change.’ Roger McNamee’s
on the April 26/May 3 school curricula.’ Work” issue Oct. 25/Nov. 1 features
climate issue on the most significant
JANE TAEGER, of leak in Facebook’s
St. Augustine, Fla., 17-year history

The Year in Covers, Quotes, Firsts & Lasts, Language and Then & Now were written and reported by

20 Madeleine Carlisle, Cady Lang, Tara Law, Sanya Mansoor, Megan McCluskey and Olivia B. Waxman

‘Rude and 2021 THE YEAR IN ‘DON’T JUDGE
racist are not ME, BECAUSE
Quotes I AM HUMAN ...
the same.’ I JUST HAPPEN
‘FELLAS, I NEED 11,000 VOTES. TO RUN A LITTLE
MEGHAN MARKLE, GIVE ME A BREAK.’
on the difference between the FA S T E R .’
way the British media covers DONALD TRUMP,
in a Jan. 2 phone call with Georgia secretary of state Brad SHA’CARRI RICHARDSON,
white members of the royal Raffensperger, during which he repeatedly pressured Raffensperger American sprinter, speaking to
family and the coverage she the Today show on July 2 about
received prior to leaving the to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state her suspension from the U.S.
U.K., to Oprah Winfrey in an
interview that aired on March 7 ‘Today, we Olympic team after testing
are able to positive for THC
breathe again.’

PHILONISE FLOYD,
brother of George Floyd, after former Minneapolis police
officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder on April 20

‘THE WORD VICTIM IS A ‘We are ‘Losing her has
LOADED, LOADED WORD.’ witnessing ... put a new lens
an outright on my eyes on
JUDGE BRUCE SCHROEDER, crime against the amount of
ruling Oct. 25 that attorneys could refer at Kyle Rittenhouse’s hate that exists
murder trial to people he shot as “looters” and “arsonists” but humanity.’ in our world.’
not “victims”; the teen was found not guilty on Nov. 19 after
ARUNDHATI ROY, RANDY PARK,
fatally shooting two protesters in Kenosha, Wis., last year author, writing in the son of Hyun Jung Grant,
Guardian on April 28 51, a Korean American
‘DIVORCE, woman who was among the
BABE. DIVORCE.’ about the Modi eight killed in the March 16
government’s failure Atlanta spa shootings, in an
ADELE, to handle India’s brutal interview three days later
in an Oct. 9 Instagram Live, on what inspired her album 30 second wave of COVID-19

GETTY IMAGES (3) ‘A code red ‘THIS WILL ‘IT’S O.K.
for humanity.’ OPEN DOORS NOT TO
FOR MANY OTHER BE O.K.’
ANTÓNIO GUTERRES, QUEER PEOPLE
U.N. Secretary-General, in an Aug. 9 TO SIMPLY EXIST.’ NAOMI OSAKA,
tennis player, in a July 8
statement after the release of an LIL NAS X, essay for TIME about her
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate in a March 26 open letter to his young
mental health
Change report, which found the self, promoting the release of his sing
opportunity to limit the impact of 21
climate change is rapidly narrowing “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)”

Content by the Buzz Business

INNOVATION

REBEL
WITH A
CAUSE
When Wayne Griffiths, CEO of SEAT and CUPRA,
came to Barcelona as a free spirit in his youth, he
liked the nightlife district so much that 30 years
later he named a trailblazing electric car after it.

A wild at heart 55-year-old, and still with a fondness for
leather jackets and designer clothes, Griffiths has turned
the Barcelona-based company into one of Europe’s fastest
growing auto makers. On top of that he masterminded and
successfully launched the smash hit spin-off brand, CUPRA,
for cars that are sporty, emotional, exciting and fun to drive.

And it is the CUPRA Born, named after one of the trendiest
parts of the Catalan capital, that is spearheading the
company’s rapid acceleration towards an all-electric future.

“I may be a bit of a rebel, but I am a rebel with a cause,” says
Griffiths. “My cause is nothing less than to transform SEAT
S.A. into a company that builds electric cars profitably
and leads Spain into the age of electric mobility.”

Griffiths arrived in Barcelona in 2016 to run SEAT’s sales
and marketing division. After reenergizing the company’s
sales performance and achieving massive market share
gains in Spain and in markets such as Germany and
Mexico, he was appointed to the top job in 2020.

One of the catalysts for SEAT’s success was the launch
of CUPRA as a spin-off brand for performance cars,
enabling the company to target new segments of the
automotive market. So far this year, CUPRA has sold
around 70,000 of its sporty and stylish vehicles.

For Griffiths, the extraordinary demand for CUPRA Since joining SEAT in 2016 and taking over as CEO in 2020, Wayne Griffiths has
models like the Formentor SUV has vindicated helped to turn SEAT S.A. into one of the fastest-growing car companies in Europe.
what at the time was a controversial decision.

Content by the Buzz Business

MOBILITY

“Big dreams begin with just a In a prime location in downtown Barcelona, Casa SEAT showcases design, mobility, technology and urban culture.
few believers, and at the beginning
we were very few believers,” he How are you preparing SEAT talking to the Spanish government
says. “A lot of people doubted us, but for the future, after more than about creating new incentives for the
with CUPRA we have managed to 70 years in business? customers and investing in public
create a contemporary brand that Our Future Fast Forward plan is one charging infrastructure so that Spain
has exceeded all our expectations, of the most ambitious projects in the can replicate the boom in demand
outperformed our competitors, history of our company. It means that by in northern Europe. The availability
and forged real connections 2025 we hope to be building electric cars of affordable, attractive and exciting
with the younger generation.” in our main plant just outside Barcelona. cars like the CUPRA Born will only
We are also going to be responsible for increase demand even more.
With the launch this year of the Born developing the electric small urban cars
and the unveiling of the UrbanRebel project for the entire Volkswagen Group. What do you like most about
concept car, CUPRA is making SEAT working for SEAT in Barcelona?
S.A. a force to be reckoned with in the It is a massive change. But it is a huge My favorite place is Casa SEAT, which
age of the battery-powered vehicle. opportunity not just for the company but is our experience center right in the
for Spain. Part of my job is to make sure heart of Barcelona. It is buzzing every
Under its ambitious Future Fast that we have the culture and the mindset day of the week. There is always
Forward plan, SEAT is working towards that allows us to seize this chance. We something going on, often with events
producing an urban electric vehicle need to be brave and make some very that have nothing to do with mobility.
by 2025 that will reignite European big decisions. I want everyone at SEAT to It is always full of young people and
drivers’ love affair with the car. dream big and believe that we can win. there is an amazing level of energy.

And with Griffiths behind the
wheel, no car company looks better
placed to achieve that ambition.

How much momentum does your WE WANT TO MAKE THE
recent sales performance give you? DRIVING EXPERIENCE
Demand for SEAT and CUPRA cars is SEXY, EMOTIONAL AND
higher than ever before. The two brands _EXCITING.
complement each other very well. They
have different roles and different target WAYNE GRIFFITHS,
groups. The SEAT brand is in the best SEAT AND CUPRA CEO
shape it has ever been in. And with
Under the stewardship of Wayne Griffiths, SEAT S.A. is CUPRA we have created an amazing
expanding rapidly into urban micro mobility services. and contemporary brand that is all about
design, performance and Barcelona.

How fast is demand for
electric cars growing?
Electric cars are the fastest-growing
part of the European market. We are

2021 THE YEAR IN

Jan. 20 Pope Francis meets Firsts Sept. 17
with Grand Ayatollah Ali &
Kamala Harris is sworn al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq— Netflix megahit
in as the first female, the first ever meeting Lasts Squid Game is first

Black and Asian between a Pope and July 28 released on the
American Vice President a Grand Ayatollah streaming platform
The first direct observation
of the United States April 6 of light from behind a black Dec. 3
hole is reported, confirming a
Arkansas prediction made in Einstein’s Mariah Carey’s
becomes the theory of general relativity “All I Want for
first U.S. state Christmas Is
to impose a ban May 13 Sept. 7 You” announced
on transgender
youth receiving First Eid prayers El Salvador as the first
gender-affirming in 87 years at the becomes the first holiday song
health care Hagia Sophia in country in the world certified diamond
Istanbul, after the to adopt Bitcoin as
site’s conversion an official currency Oct. 6
from museum to
The World Health
mosque Organization

endorses the first
malaria vaccine

Firsts

JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER

Lasts

Feb. 1 Sept. 8 HARRIS: ALEX WONG—GETTY IMAGES; SQUID GAME: NETFLIX; LEE: BOB BROWN—GETTY IMAGES; GETTY IMAGES (5)

Aung San Suu Last day standing
Kyi’s last day for Richmond, Va.’s
as leader of
Myanmar, as the 131-year-old
military seizes statue of Confederate
power in a coup general Robert E. Lee,

June 10 which is removed
from its plinth
The final
March 29 Keeping Up With Nov. 12
the Kardashians
The last day the The end of a 13-year
container ship episode airs conservatorship under
Ever Given blocks on E!, ending
the Suez Canal after a 20-season which the pop star
running aground Britney Spears had
nearly a week earlier run for the been held, following
and disrupting groundbreaking
reality TV show a Los Angeles
global trade judge’s ruling

Jan. 8 Aug. 30 Oct. 26

Former President The U.N. confirms the Last day that Mako
Donald Trump posts his worldwide end of leaded- Komuro—formerly
last tweet before being Princess Mako—is
gasoline use after gas considered a member
permanently banned stations in Algeria, believed of Japan’s royal family,
from Twitter following before her wedding to
the insurrection at the to be the last places commoner Kei Komuro
offering the fuel, run out
U.S. Capitol

24 TIME December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

2021 THE YEAR IN

Truth

Down but
Not Out

BY KARL VICK

ANDRIUS SYTAS—REUTERS On May 23, a cOntrOl tOwer radiOed △ Frances Haugen’s leak of Facebook’s in-
a Ryanair jetliner that it had a bomb on ternal documents to news organizations
board. A fighter jet appeared off its wing, A Ryanair flight lands in Vilnius on grounded not in “engagement” but in
and Flight FR4978, en route from Greece May 23 after Belarus forced it down trust built on the verification of facts.
to Lithuania, was compelled to make a
sharp turn and land in Belarus. But there to arrest a journalist on board There remains no shortage of old-
was no bomb: only Roman Protasevich, fashioned physical threats to journal-
an ashen-faced journalist who informed how the brutal populist was enabled by ists. Since the military seized control
his fellow passengers that he was the social media companies, as well as other of Myanmar on Feb. 1, dozens of jour-
reason the plane was diverted. After dis- dark forces the Internet once held the nalists have been arrested. The re-
embarking, the 26-year-old was led away promise of keeping in check. “It’s a battle turn of the Taliban put hundreds of
for the crime of reporting on political for facts,” Ressa, who was a TIME Person Afghan journalists at risk. In Mexico,
opposition—exactly the sort of activity of the Year in 2018, told me in October. nine members of the press have been
essential to the functioning of a democ- This is why authoritarian regimes jail killed so far this year. In November,
racy, should one ever occur in his be- journalists but find social media useful. al-Shabab sent a suicide bomber to kill
nighted homeland. Putin’s troll farms create uncertainty not the head of Radio Mogadishu in the So-
only about U.S. elections but also about mali capital.
When a state openly hijacks a com- “the facts on the ground” in places where
mercial flight to abduct a journalist, the Russia is making military moves. Yet so much depends on the archi-
message to the rest of the world is that the tecture of communication. This year
impunity enjoyed by authoritarians has So did the Scale, over the past 12 18 countries used a “middlebox” in
reached a new level. After all, even the months, began to tip toward truth? China’s Huawei technology to block news
Saudis tried to keep Jamal Khashoggi’s There was reason to hope. The year outlets—and 54 others could do the same.
fate a secret in 2018; along with a bone began with Australian lawmakers com- The Internet has allowed journalists to
saw, they brought a body double. ing to the aid of news organizations by reach more people, faster than ever. “But
forcing Google and Facebook to pay like any technology, it’s dual use,” notes
“It’s been a terrible year for press for the news they collect ad revenues Mahoney. “You’ve seen this cheap and
freedom,” says Robert Mahoney of the from. And 2021 ended with a growing instant communication revolutionizing
Committee to Protect Journalists, an consensus to compel social media plat- journalism and the distribution of news
advocacy group based in New York forms to place the public good ahead and information, but also being turned
City. “Governments are increasingly of business models that encourage po- against the very publishers of that news
intolerant of criticism, of independent litical and social division. The source and information. It’s a constant battle.”
reporting. They either jail journalists of the groundswell? Whistle-blower —With reporting by SiMMOne Shah □
or they prosecute them under vague
and sweeping antiterrorism laws, or 25
‘fake news’ laws, and try to shut them
down that way.”

Yet 2021 was also a year in which the
problem took the world stage. Calling
free expression “a precondition for de-
mocracy and lasting peace,” the Nobel
Committee awarded its Peace Prize on
Oct. 8 to two journalists. Dmitry Mu-
ratov of Novaya Gazeta dedicated the
award to the six reporters murdered
while working at one of the last inde-
pendent news outlets in Vladimir Pu-
tin’s Russia; in the Philippines, Maria
Ressa, co-founder of the online news
site Rappler, faced down President
Rodrigo Duterte while also documenting

2021 THE YEAR IN

Language

CRITICAL cheugy murraya
RACE THEORY Adjective Noun
(1) A genus of tropical
Noun A catchall descriptor for someone or Asiatic and Australian
something that is basic, trying too hard or trees and shrubs;
(1) An intellectual movement not trendy; originating on TikTok, it’s often (2) The word with which
contextualizing the effects of used by Gen Z to deride millennial trends Zaila Avant-garde in July
became the first Black
structural racism; American winner of the
(2) A buzzword in the debate Scripps National Spelling
over how students should be Bee, which dates to 1925

learning about race breakthrough

NFT Adjective
Used to describe an infection,
Initialism as with COVID-19, that occurs
despite vaccination against
Nonfungible token: a digital
file that cannot be copied, the disease

thus allowing certified
ownership of a virtual asset

REGENCYCORE

Noun, adjective

A fashion and culture trend inspired by the look
of the British Regency period—or by Netflix’s hit
Bridgerton and the series’ celebration of early
19th century aristocrats and their glamorous foibles

deplatform hybrid METAVERSE

Verb Adjective Noun
(1) A digital realm or
To ban, boycott or otherwise limit the influence of someone on To be composed collective of virtual
a platform—usually a social media or other public forum of mixed experiences, environments
and assets; (2) A vision
hot vax parts, as in an of the future of the
summer employment Internet, as promulgated
model in which by Facebook’s October
Noun employees are announcement that it was
expected to mix renaming itself Meta
A season of surging social in-person and
action for vaccinated singles, remote work

predicted (if not realized) ECO-
after a year of distancing ANXIETY

Noun SECOND ILLUSTRATIONS BY KIM SIELBECK FOR TIME
GENTLEMAN
Significant
unease or fear Title
about climate The male partner of a
change and the
current and future U.S. Vice President (see:
environmental harm
it poses to the earth Doug Emhoff, husband of

Kamala Harris)

26 TIME December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

2021 THE YEAR IN

Climate

A Time for power grid. The new system is
Innovation made with cheap and plentiful
iron pellets. If it works as well
BY ALEJANDRO DE LA GARZA as Form Energy claims, it would
offer a more affordable way to
ARNALDUR HALLDORSSON—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES After A rAre pAndemic- out an electric version of its The world’s largest store renewable electricity and
related dip in 2020, global most popular vehicle, the F-150 carbon-capture release it when the sun isn’t
carbon emissions bounced pickup, while Tesla, a trailblazer shining or the wind isn’t blowing,
back with a vengeance. Cli- in the segment, continued to facility opened in making it more financially viable
mate disasters seemed re- charge ahead, logging record Iceland in September to phase out fossil-fuel power
lentless over the summer, quarterly profits. plants.
from flooding in Western Eu- atmosphere and permanently
rope and China to wildfires A GUST OF GREEN store it underground began oper- LINKING CAUSE
in Siberia and the American POWER ating in Iceland in September. AND EFFECT
West. And although world The plant runs on geothermal
leaders made some headway Offshore wind is one of the energy and is able to sequester Over the past few years, an
at the COP26 climate summit world’s best decarboniza- 4,000 tons of carbon per year. international team of scientists
in Glasgow, their new emis- tion tools, especially to power To be sure, that’s several orders has been quietly refining a
sion-reduction commitments densely populated coastal areas of magnitude smaller than the system to determine the role
aren’t nearly enough to get like the Eastern seaboard. But billion-ton scale that would of climate change in extreme
the world back on track. the U.S. hasn’t built more than a be required to make a dent in weather events faster than
handful of those turbines, even global emissions, and many ever before. This summer,
Even so, it was also a year as gigawatts of offshore wind environmentalists are wary of that team, led by European
in which individuals, orga- power began flowing in Europe investing in such projects, saying climate scientists Geert Jan
nizations and governments and China in recent decades. limited resources are better van Oldenborgh and Friederike
started to come together to This year, the U.S. approved its used to build renewable power Otto, took only nine days to prove
respond to the climate emer- first large-scale offshore wind and storage to replace fossil that a deadly, record-breaking
gency. It’s unclear whether farm, Vineyard Wind, off the fuels. But other experts argue heat wave in the U.S. Pacific
that momentum will lead coast of Massachusetts, and that developing such carbon- Northwest would have been
to the sweeping systemic construction began in Novem- capture tools will prove essential all but impossible without
changes the world needs to ber. Many more such projects to balance out emissions from the effects of human-made
rapidly zero out greenhouse- are expected in the years ahead. hard-to-decarbonize industries greenhouse-gas emissions.
gas emissions, but from in- like shipping and air travel. Work like this is crucial in
ternational agreements to GETTING THE helping the public grasp the
technological advances, some CARBON OUT BATTERY urgency of the climate crisis.
progress is being made. Here, BREAKTHROUGH
some of the most important The largest-ever facility designed A NEW DEADLINE
climate advances of 2021. to pull carbon out of the Secretive U.S. startup Form FOR COAL
Energy entered the public
ELECTRIC eye this year, showing off its Although many observers were
ACCELERATION rechargeable iron-air battery to dissatisfied with the results of
Wall Street Journal reporters COP26, the summit did have
Traditional carmakers have in July. The batteries are too some successes. One of the key
heavy for electric cars, but they milestones from the meeting
long been seen as an obstacle could be a game changer for the was an agreement between
more than 40 countries to
in the fight against climate phase out coal power, one of
the worst contributors to global
change, with internal combus- climate change. Major emitters
like the U.S. and China didn’t
tion engines in trucks and sign on to the deal, and some
experts say the agreement gives
automobiles responsible for individual countries too much
leeway on phaseout dates,
almost 20% of U.S. carbon emis- but the international pledge
still marks a step toward the
sions. But we might look back goal of eliminating coal power
worldwide.
on 2021 as the year the dam

broke, with carmakers from

General Motors to Mercedes-

Benz practically falling over one

another with pledges to electrify

their offerings and plow money

into battery vehicles. Ford rolled

27

2021 THE YEAR IN

Then&Now

Franklin D. Roosevelt Haile Selassie

With the U.S. stricken by the Great Depression, TIME explained TIME praised Selassie’s leadership when Ethiopia was
that voters “wrote their own ticket for Man of the Year” by electing battling Italian invaders, although the emperor was later
Democratic legislators—a clear endorsement of FDR’s New Deal. accused of violently repressing rebellion. Current Prime
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden, weakened by Minister Abiy Ahmed—a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner—
is locked in civil war in the same region, his government
soft approval ratings, now struggles to shepherd his Build Back
Better agenda through a sharply divided Congress. accused of ethnic cleansing and forced starvation.

1934 1935

The American Fighting-man The Endangered Earth BIDEN: ALE X WONG — GE T T Y IMAGES; E THIOPIA: YASUYOSHI CHIBA — AF P/GE T T Y IMAGES; AFGHANISTAN: JIM HUYLEBROEK—THE NE W YORK TIMES/REDUX; PALM TREE:
LUKE SHARRETT—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES; GAZA CITY: MOHAMMED TALATENE—DPA/PICTURE ALLIANCE/GETTY IMAGES; HAUGEN: DREW ANGERER—GETTY IMAGES
Six months into the Korean War, TIME lauded the dedication of Our destruction of the world’s natural habitats will cause a
U.S. soldiers, particularly those who had never expected to see crisis for biodiversity, TIME wrote of its “Planet of the Year” pick,
active duty. Today, the U.S. reckons with the consequences of
its haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan, after 20 years of war warning that “humanity is at war with the plants and animals
that killed not only more than 2,400 American troops, but also that share its planet.” Decades later, the current trajectory
of climate change now threatens to make much of the globe
tens of thousands of Afghan and Pakistani civilians.
uninhabitable for another species: us.

1950 1988

The Peacemakers The Whistleblowers

Among a group of “peacemakers” TIME recognized as working At Enron, WorldCom and the FBI, three women became whistle-blow-
to end decades of conflict were Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and ers in 2002 after failing to convince internal leabders to take action
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Some three decades later and curb wrongdoing. This year, disillusioned with Facebook’s treat-
the conflict grinds on, flaring in May when Hamas and Israeli ment of its “civic integrity” team, which was meant to fight misinfor-
mation and improve user safety from the inside, former employee
forces traded fire that killed hundreds, mostly Palestinians. The
outbreak followed moves against Palestinians inside Israel. Frances Haugen made damaging internal documents public.

1993 2002
28 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

Morocco
THE DOORWAY TO
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS IN AFRICA

S

INTELCIA – Putting People First

When international businesses started ourselves,” says Bernoussi. “We also realized Karim Bernoussi, CEO of Intelcia
moving their customer service and that to get big enough to avoid this, we had to
call center activities offshore during have a scalable financial structure.” Achieving of the company’s DNA since the very beginning.
the nineties, Morocco quickly became a popular the requisite scale, he reasoned, would involve Nor its ability to empathize with its clients, which
choice for relocation. The country’s proximity to positioning Intelcia as the default outsourcing has helped set it apart from the competition.
Europe, along with its vast pool of young talent partner for companies with pan-African “We aren’t just about numbers, and we’re not
and cost competitiveness, made it a desirable ambitions. completely fixated with the bottom line,” says
location for international outsourcing services. Bernoussi. “In the end, we’re all about people.”
Bernoussi has achieved that expansion through
One Moroccan company that has excelled in a combination of organic development and
this space for the past two decades is the Intelcia acquisitions, including in France. “We wanted to
Group, the country’s leading provider of business prove that a Moroccan company could develop
process outsourcing, along with call center and internationally and could successfully invest in a
IT back-office servicing. Established in 2000 by European company, rather than vice versa. That
CEO Karim Bernoussi, Intelcia has grown from a really motivated us,” he recalls. “It also helped
small start-up to a major international operation. establish the Intelcia Group as an international
Although Intelcia is first and foremost a Moroccan organization.” Subsequent acquisitions have
company, it already has 35,000 employees and extended its Spanish, Portuguese, English and
offices in 18 countries. Most of these are in Africa other language capabilities, and the company
and Europe, but it has also made inroads into the is on track this year to achieve sales of €700
United States and Latin America in the belief that million. By 2025, Bernoussi expects that figure to
businesses’ transition to digitalization plays to the more than double to €1.5 billion.
strength of Intelcia Group as a global company.
Bernoussi is, however, determined that this
“From the very start we decided to think big, growth will not come at the expense of Intelcia’s
because we realized if we only had modest commitment to the wellbeing and personal
ambitions, then we would end up being acquired development of employees, which has been part

time.com/specialsections

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

SOTHEMA – A Rising
Pharmaceutical Giant

This past July, at a ceremony chaired by King Lamia Tazi, CEO of Sothema
Mohammed VI of Morocco, the Société de
Therapeutique Marocaine (Sothema) signed
an agreement with the Moroccan Ministry of
Health to begin production of five million doses
per month of the Chinese pharmaceutical giant
Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The deal is part of Morocco’s drive to SOTHEMA WAS FOUNDED Sothema’s longstanding commitment to
become the pan-continental vaccine IN 1976 BY TAZI’S LATE the improvement of healthcare services
hub for Africa, a market that is forecast FATHER, OMAR TAZI, WITH throughout Africa also continues. “Morocco
to grow to $2.35 billion annually by the end THE EXPRESS OBJECTIVE OF is the gateway to Africa, and we see it as our
of the decade, from $1.3 billion today. GIVING THE POPULATIONS OF responsibility to transfer our technology to the
AFRICA EASY ACCESS TO THE countries where the pharmaceutical sector is
With the support of local pharmaceutical TREATMENT THEY REQUIRED. not at a level that addresses shortages and
companies like Sothema, that goal is BEHIND THIS DREAM LAY HIS counterfeiting,” says Tazi. In 2013, production
attainable. At the governmental level, the BELIEF THAT AFFORDABLE began at its factory in Senegal, which is
Moroccan authorities were quick to implement HEALTHCARE WAS ONE OF managed through Sothema’s West Afric
a vaccination program and have since THE ESSENTIAL FOUNDATIONS Pharma subsidiary. The factory is dedicated
managed to “double jab” a higher percentage FOR SUSTAINABLE to the production of generic drugs for the
of the population than almost any other DEVELOPMENT. West African markets and will also eventually
country on the African continent. enable Senegal to become self-sufficient in
Both father and daughter have remained drug production.
Sothema’s management also had the foresight true to this conviction. Over the past 45
to recognize that the crisis underscored the years, Sothema has steadily increased its “Beyond Senegal, our main objective is to
need for an African centre of epidemiological production capacity through a combination establish more industrial facilities in other
excellence. Under the direct guidance of the of organic growth, acquisition, and via African countries,” says Tazi. “We have
monarch, it acted accordingly. “His Majesty partnerships with several life sciences and enough technical and human expertise to
was fully behind the vaccination program from pharmaceutical companies. These include establish Morocco as a technology hub for the
day one,” says Lamia Tazi, CEO of Sothema. blue-chip multinationals such as Eli Lilly, continent in a relatively short space of time.”
“Thanks to his backing, we were one of the Sanofi and Novartis, whose Moroccan The market shares her confidence. Morocco’s
first countries in the world to undertake clinical production facilities Sothema acquired in pharmaceutical sector index has surged
studies and start manufacturing vaccines.” At 2010. by 175% since the beginning of the year,
the outset of the pandemic, Sothema led the compared with a 13.27% rise in the overall
way in mobilizing its entire production capacity Listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange exchange. Shares in Sothema have performed
to ensure that there was no shortage of the since 2005, and with annual revenues even better, doubling in value.
molecules intrinsic to the treatment protocol for approaching $200 million, Sothema operates
locally manufactured drugs. seven specialized production units where “We are excited by what we do, and that
it manufactures and markets over 300 excitement translates into good things,”
“My major concern around Sothema’s ability products -- ranging from insulin to antibiotics says Tazi. “Investors are prepared to pay a
to help combat COVID-19 was that the supply and cardiological treatments – a total of premium price because they believe in what is
chain from Asia would break down because of more than 70 million units. Its R&D teams happening, just as much as I do.”
excess demand,” says Tazi. “So I decided to are increasingly focused on the potential
stockpile the raw materials as soon as we got of biotechnology to treat multiple cancers,
the first inkling as to the scale of what was to polyarthritis and other heavy diseases.
come, back in January 2020. This enabled In 2017, it started manufacturing and
us to get through the whole year without any distributing the first monoclonal antibodies
production stoppages. I am really proud of (mAbs) in Africa.
everybody in the company and the way we
managed to pass this test.”

time.com/specialsections

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

HIGHTECH PAYMENT SYSTEMS

The Future of Finance

Almost $5 trillion is electronically transferred around the globe
every day, and thanks to companies like Moroccan-based
Hightech Payment Systems (HPS), the capacity of those
systems is constantly improving and expanding.

Co-Founded in 1995 by Mohamed Exchange (MASI). Since its IPO in 2006, Mohamed Horani
Horani, HPS has established itself as HPS stock has risen 340%, and in 2018 Co-Founder & Chairman of HPS
one of the world’s leading providers of rose 52%, while the overall index fell 8%.
card and payment technology. Spread across “Many analysts think we are still undervalued processing company and gives HPS the
90 countries, its success is built around compared to our competitors listed on platform to build a centre of excellence
HPS’s PowerCARD platform. Designed to Nasdaq or the London Stock Exchange,” says around its PowerCARD technology. The
support all kinds of issuers, from global Horani. venture will also give the company the
financial institutions to small retailers, critical mass needed to market its services
the system has full multi-currency, multi- ANALYSTS’ BULLISH STANCE more effectively to Tier 1 and Tier 2 African
product, multi-institution and multi-language ON HPS IS NO DOUBT DUE banks and bring HPS closer to its objective of
capabilities -- and manages all card portfolios AT LEAST IN PART TO THE doubling its regional presence over the next
on a single global platform. GROWTH POTENTIAL OF THE five years.
WHOLE INTERNATIONAL
PowerCARD-based solutions generate more PAYMENTS MARKET. BUT IT IS Thanks to HPS’s willingness to embrace
than 70% of the group’s revenue, while ALSO A CLEAR ENDORSEMENT and harness new technologies constructively,
processing and services activities bring in OF THE COMPANY’S the company now looks set to play a
the remaining 30%. HPS manages not only SUSTAINED INVESTMENT IN leading role in the worldwide regulation of
the card systems, but also mobile payments NEW IDEAS, WHICH SEES THE cryptocurrencies. Although Bitcoin trading is
and all the technology needed to transact GROUP REGULARLY PLOUGH currently not permitted in Morocco – due to it
the sales -- which means the M-Wallets, BACK 14% OF ANNUAL SALES being decentralized and overly volatile -- HPS
ATMs, the point-of-sale tools in shops, the INTO R&D. is working with several countries to evaluate
computers in restaurants and so on. the possibility of introducing a state-run
In the broader context, HPS’s development digitalized currency. What technology should
HPS has also developed expertise in work is driven by an ambition to make the be used, and how money should be used, are
meeting the growing regulatory demand for PowerCARD suite of products and services key questions that HPS is helping address.
data security, particularly the requirement as scalable as possible, while more specific “Can you lend digital currency, for example?
that customers’ data be stored in their objectives include leveraging the cloud to Once we have the answers, we can help their
country of residence. By doing so it has further diversify its infrastructure costs. institutions put together the infrastructure
reinforced its position as an SaaS (software Making all PowerCARD processing real-time and the technology needed to run that
as a service) provider. By assuming to meet the challenges posed by new instant infrastructure,” says Horani.
a company’s responsibility for data payment methods is also high on the agenda.
management, transfers and interoperability, Being so deeply involved at a government
HPS enables its clients to concentrate on Horani insists, however, that HPS has no level concerning the future of such a
their core business. intention of reinventing itself as a fintech potentially game-changing development
company -- but would enter a partnership with speaks volumes about the esteem with
The popularity of this approach is evident one, if it were advantageous for clients. This which the company and its co-founder
in the company’s financial performance. past July, for instance, the HPS Mauritius- and chairman are regarded in the world of
Over the past five years, HPS has grown based subsidiary ICPS announced it was global finance and beyond. Truly worthy
at an average annual rate of 19%. This joining forces with Zwipe to develop a range of ambassadors for Morocco.
is partly a reflection of the increased biometric cards with fingerprint sensors to give
digitalization of the world economy, which consumers an additional layer of security.
received an unexpected boost last year
when the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated The acquisition of ICPS is part of a wider
the trend towards cashless payments. HPS strategy to position HPS as Africa’s leading
was already the star of the Moroccan Stock

time.com/specialsections

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MOST
INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF THE YEAR AT

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2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

Elon
Musk

PHOTOGRAPH BY
MARK MAHANEY FOR TIME



By Edward Felsenthal worse. Person of the Year is a marker of influence,
and few individuals have had more influence than
Despite shattering Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth
records this year with a net too. In 2021, Musk emerged not just as the world’s
worth above $300 billion, richest person but also as perhaps the richest ex-
ample of a massive shift in our society. From Ama-
Elon Musk demurs at zon’s Jeff Bezos to Facebook turned Meta’s Mark
being described as the Zuckerberg, the year brought home the extent to
richest person in the history which, at a time of rising protest over ever deep-
of the world. “Excluding ening inequality, our lives and many of the basic
sovereigns,” Musk says structures around them are now shaped by the
wryly, adding that Russia’s pursuits, products and priorities of the world’s
Vladimir Putin is likely wealthiest people.
richer than he. “I can’t
invade countries and stuff.” Even in that rarefied crowd, Musk is in a class
of his own. He sees his mission as solving the
The differences begin to fade a bit as one
drives down Texas Highway 4, between the Gulf The
of Mexico and the Rio Grande, toward one of the
southernmost points in the U.S., where Musk is globe’s most intractable challenges, along the
preparing to launch the world’s largest rocket. way disrupting multiple industries across two
Gleaming spacecraft—some retired from duty, decades. These include what was once the core
others still in production—rise stories above the American creation, combustion-engine automo-
sparse terrain. His company is gobbling up local biles, and what was once the core American as-
housing and encouraging employees to move piration, spaceflight, as well as a litany of other
there. “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” manifestations of our present and future: infra-
Musk announced on Twitter earlier this year, structure construction, artificial intelligence,
to the evident surprise of the residents of Boca neurotechnology, payment systems and increas-
Chica, where his facility is located. (A county of- ingly money itself through his dalliances with
ficial noted that “Sending a tweet does not make cryptocurrencies.
it so,” and that a petition must first be filed.)
As provocative as his vision is his persona, a
For nearly a century, TIME has named a Person blunt instrument that often seems to revel in divi-
of the Year—the individual or group who most sion and aggressive mockery as he gives the world
shaped the previous 12 months, for better or for access to his id through social media.

Musk’s largest terrestrial iMpact so far
has been with Tesla. 2021 was the year that electric
vehicles finally came into the mainstream and that
Tesla became a trillion-dollar company, one of only
a handful in the world. It’s a market that Musk al-
most single-handedly created, seeing long before
others the demand for clean-energy transportation

36 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

that the world’s climate crisis would eventually rockets as reusable as airplanes.
propel. From Detroit to Milan, announcements of Musk’s rise coincides with broader trends of
EV commitments poured in all year as automakers
that once fiercely resisted emissions restrictions which he and his fellow technology magnates are
are now scrambling to catch up. part cause and part effect: the continuing decline
of traditional institutions in favor of individuals;
Should we fall short with Earth, Musk’s answer government dysfunction that has delivered more
is space, where he envisions “a futuristic Noah’s power and responsibility to business; and chasms
ark.” His SpaceX is the global commercial leader of wealth and opportunity. In an earlier era, am-
in building and flying rockets and crews, chosen bitions on the scale of interplanetary travel were
by NASA to build the ship that aims to place astro- the ultimate collective undertaking, around which
nauts back on the moon for the first time in more Presidents rallied nations.
than 50 years. Musk’s rough timeline for that is
three years, with two more years to land on Mars. Today they are increasingly the province of
The key, he says as matter-of-factly as the rest of private companies. To Musk, that is progress,
us might say the time of day, is making spacefaring steering capital allocation away from the govern-
ment to those who will be good stewards of it.

Choice

He sees his mission as To others, it is testament to capitalism’s failings
solving the globe’s as staggeringly wealthy, mostly white men play
most intractable by their own rules while much of society gets
left behind.
challenges, disrupting
multiple industries In decIdIng each december who should be
along the way Person of the Year, we look back but also aim to
look forward. Bezos was the choice in 1999 when
e-commerce was just beginning to take off. Zucker-
berg was selected in 2010, well before it was clear
what Facebook’s full effect on society and democ-
racy would be. We don’t yet know how fully Tesla,
SpaceX and the ventures Musk has yet to think up
will change our lives. At 50, he has plenty of time
to write the future, his own and ours. Like it or
not, we are now in Musk’s world.

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 is the editor-in-chief and CEO of TIME

ILLUSTRATED BORDERS BY COCORRINA & CO FOR TIME

2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

Visionary. Showman. Iconoclast.
Troll. How Elon Musk is reshaping
our world—and beyond.

By Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger
and Alejandro de la Garza

The richesT man in The world does noT own pioneered and is valued at a cool $1 trillion. That
a house and has recently been selling off his fortune. has made Musk, with a net worth of more than
He tosses satellites into orbit and harnesses the $250 billion, the richest private citizen in history,
sun; he drives a car he created that uses no gas and at least on paper. He’s a player in robots and solar,
barely needs a driver. With a flick of his finger, the cryptocurrency and climate, brain-computer im-
stock market soars or swoons. An army of devotees plants to stave off the menace of artificial intelli-
hangs on his every utterance. He dreams of Mars as gence and underground tunnels to move people
he bestrides Earth, square-jawed and indomitable. and freight at super speeds. He dominates Wall
Lately, Elon Musk also likes to live-tweet his poops. Street: “The way finance works now is that things
are valuable not based on their cash flows but on
“Just dropping some friends off at the pool,” the their proximity to Elon Musk,” Bloomberg colum-
50-year-old zillionaire informed his 66 million nist Matt Levine wrote in February, after Musk’s
Twitter followers on the evening of Nov. 29, hav- “Gamestonk!!” tweet vaulted the meme-stock
ing previously advised that at least half his tweets craze into the stratosphere.
were “made on a porcelain throne.” After an
interval—21 minutes, if you must know—an up- Musk has spent a lifetime defying the haters;
date: “Splish splash.” now, it seems, he’s finally in position to put them in
their place. For 2021 was the year of Elon Unbound.
“Sometimes I do hit some resonant notes with In April, SpaceX won NASA’s exclusive contract to
respect to humor,” Musk says of his puerile ex- put U.S. astronauts on the moon for the first time
pressions. It’s a warm, windy December day at since 1972. In May, Musk hosted Saturday Night
Starbase, his new rocket-fabrication and launch Live. In October, car-rental giant Hertz announced
facility at the southern tip of Texas. Two of his it planned to add 100,000 Teslas to its fleet. The
Starship rockets—gleaming, pointy-nosed, 160-ft. juvenile missives from his unmistakably phallic
stainless-steel silos—are silhouetted behind him in Twitter avatar came days after one of his rockets
the setting sun. “But you know, not all jokes land.” launched NASA’s first anti-asteroid planetary-
defense test; a few weeks before another launched a
This is the man who aspires to save our planet first-of-its-kind mission to study cosmic X-rays; and
and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, amid Musk’s sale of 10% of his Tesla stock, a process
edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; that roiled markets, cost him billions and should
a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum,
Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhat- MUSK AT THE TESLA
tan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who in- GIGAFACTORY
vents electric cars and moves to Mars. His startup IN GRÜNHEIDE,
rocket company, SpaceX, has leapfrogged Boeing
and others to own America’s spacefaring future. GERMANY, ON OCT. 9
His car company, Tesla, controls two-thirds of
the multibillion-dollar electric-vehicle market it

38 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022 PATRICK PLEUL— PICTURE- ALLIANCE/DPA/AP

39

2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

produce enough tax revenue to fund the Commerce he’s made statements downplaying the virus, bro-
Department for a year. The sale was prompted by ken local health regulations to keep his factories
a Twitter poll Musk posted in a fit of pique over running and amplified skepticism about vaccine
liberal Senators’ proposals to tax billionaires. safety. Musk tells TIME that he and his eligible
children are vaccinated and that “the science is
Many people are described as larger than life, unequivocal,” but that he opposes vaccine man-
but few deserve it. How many of us truly exceed dates: “You are taking a risk, but people do risky
our life span? How many will make it into the dig- things all the time,” he says of the unvaccinated.
ital textbooks our spacefaring descendants will “I believe we’ve got to watch out for the erosion of
study? As Shakespeare observed in Julius Caesar, freedom in America.” The vast expanse of human
it’s far easier to be remembered for doing evil than misery can seem an afterthought to a man with
doing good. How many will leave a mark on the his eyes on Mars.
world—much less the universe—for their contri-
butions rather than their crimes? A few short years Musk is easily cast as a hubristic supervillain,
ago, Musk was roundly mocked as a crazy con art- lumped in with the tech bros and space playboys,
ist on the verge of going broke. Now this shy South for whom money is scorekeeping and rockets are
African with Asperger’s syndrome, who escaped a the ultimate toy. But he’s different: he’s a man-
brutal childhood and overcame personal tragedy, ufacturing magnate—moving metal, not bytes.
bends governments and industry to the force of His rockets, built from scratch on an autodidact’s
his ambition. mold-breaking vision, have saved taxpayers bil-
lions, reinvigorated America’s space dreams and
To Musk, his vast fortune is a mere side effect are launching satellites to expand Internet access
of his ability not just to see but to do things others across the globe. If Tesla delivers on its pledges,
cannot, in arenas where the stakes are existential. it has the potential to strike a major blow against
“He was raised in a tough environment and born global warming. The man from the future where
with a very special brain,” says Antonio Gracias, technology makes all things possible is a throw-
Musk’s close friend of two decades, who has held back to our glorious industrial past, before Amer-
seats on the boards of Tesla and SpaceX. “Ninety- ica stagnated and stopped producing anything but
nine-point-nine percent of people in that situation rules, restrictions, limits, obstacles and Facebook.
don’t come out of it. Some small percentage come
out of it with the ability he has to make great deci- “He is a humanist—not in the sense of being a
sions under extraordinary pressure and the never- nice person, because he isn’t,” says Robert Zubrin,
ending drive to change the course of humanity.” founder of the Mars Society, who met Musk in
2001, when the young, newly minted dot-com
Such cosmic ambition rarely comes without millionaire sent a large unsolicited check to the
consequences, and Musk still must answer to organization. “He wants eternal glory for doing
earthly authorities. His companies have faced al- great deeds, and he is an asset to the human race
legations of sexual harassment and poor work- because he defines a great deed as something that
ing conditions; in October, a federal jury ordered is great for humanity. He is greedy for glory. Money
Tesla to pay $137 million to a Black employee who to him is a means, not an end. Who today evalu-
accused the automaker of ignoring racial abuse. ates Thomas Edison on the basis of which of his
The businesses have also been fined for numerous inventions turned a profit?”
regulatory violations. The feds are probing Tesla’s
Autopilot software, which has been involved in an For all his outlier qualities, Musk also embodies
alarming number of crashes with parked emer- the zeitgeist of this liminal age. This was the year we
gency vehicles, resulting in injuries and death. The emerged from the hundred-year plague only to find
company’s expansion in China required cozying
up to its repressive autocrats. ‘I’ll be surprised if
we’re not landing on
The toll his hard-driving style takes on staff is Mars within five years.’
legendary. Former associates have described Musk
as petty, cruel and petulant, particularly when —ELON MUSK
frustrated or challenged. He recently separated
from the experimental musician Grimes, the
mother of his seventh son. “He is a savant when it
comes to business, but his gift is not empathy with
people,” says his brother and business partner
Kimbal Musk. During the COVID-19 pandemic,

40 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

there was no normal to go back to, a year A FALCON 9 and black jeans. His excited techni-

that felt like the cusp of a brave or terri- ROCKET LIFTS cal patter suddenly goes quiet; he sees
fying new world, with nobody in charge OFF ON APRIL 23, something up in the gnarled mass of
and everything up for renegotiation— metal tubes that displeases him. “If one
CARRYING A
CREW TO THE

from how we work and travel to what we SPACE STATION engine catches fire,” he explains, “we

find meaning in and cherish. Musk is our want to ensure that fire does not spread

avatar of infinite possibility, our usher to through the entire volume.” There are

the remade world, where shopworn practices are barriers between the engines for this purpose, but

cast aside and the unprecedented becomes logical, he’s not convinced they’re sufficient.

where Earth and humanity can still be saved. Per- Musk has a soft handshake and an even voice

haps no one man should have all that power. Per- that expresses exasperation, joy and breathtaking

haps this vision of the greater good comes with a ambition in the same quiet register. Tesla may be

human cost. But if many never voted or signed up the principal source of his stupendous wealth and

for Musk’s wild zero-gravity ride, that is of no con- fame, as well as his greatest impact on the planet

sequence to him. to date. But it is space that animates his wildest,

most extreme ambitions. Musk’s toddler, X Æ A-Xii

Musk ducks his large frame under the mas- (pronounced “X”), has recently started saying car,

sive steel ring that holds the tallest, most pow- to which his father responds, “Rocket!”

erful rocket ever designed and peers up at the “The goal overall has been to make life multi-

dozens of engine nozzles that will power it. His planetary and enable humanity to become a space-

fluffy little gray dog, Marvin, follows close be- faring civilization,” Musk says—not because it

hind the heels of his black cowboy boots, which would be profitable, but because it would be “excit-

Musk has paired with a black Tom Ford jacket ing,” at least to him. “And the next really big thing

ESA/EYEVINE/REDUX 41

2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring SpaceX launched its first crew to the ISS aboard a
the animals and creatures of Earth there. Sort of Dragon spacecraft in May 2020. Boeing, delayed
like a futuristic Noah’s ark. We’ll bring more than by development problems, is not planning even
two, though—it’s a little weird if there’s only two.” an uncrewed test flight until next year.

How Musk can believe something so improb- For the Dragon, Musk swept away old-school
able is easier to understand when you learn just instrument panels and replaced them with three
how unlikely his current spacefaring success has oversize touchscreens. There’s no control stick; the
been. Before it was America’s passport to the solar spacecraft’s attitude, orbit and re-entry engines
system, SpaceX nearly bankrupted Musk. Its first are all governed by the screens. Astronaut Doug
rocket, the Falcon, failed three times before reach- Hurley, commander of the first crewed Dragon
ing orbit in 2008. The company proceeded to cre- flight, worried the screens would delay reaction
ate the Falcon 9 and then the Falcon Heavy, which times, but SpaceX solved this by making Dragon
has three clusters of nine engines. Clustering en- an automated ship. “There’s no plans to do any
gines was previously considered a bad idea because more manual flying, certainly on the NASA mis-
of the number of moving parts that can go explo- sions,” Hurley says, “unless there’s a need for it
sively wrong—one of many assumptions Musk up- from a systems-failure kind of scenario.”
ended. “When I first looked at the clustering of en-
gines on the Falcon 9, I had to roll my eyes,” says Success has not dampened Musk’s appetite for
Scott Pace, director of George Washington Univer- risk. After being lofted into space by a Falcon Super
sity’s Space Policy Institute. “But that’s why Elon Heavy, his next rocket, the Starship, will light out
Musk is smarter than me.” for the moon, land there, take off and return to
Earth, with no stages expended on the lunar jour-
Rockets also weren’t supposed to fly more than ney. This so-called single-stage-to-orbit model has
once. For decades, spent rocket stages were aban- been the white whale of rocket designers for gener-
doned to the sea. “No one has ever made a fully ations. In test flights, four prototype Starships ex-
reusable orbital rocket of any kind whatsoever,” ploded on landing before a successful test last May.
Musk says. “We just live on a planet where this is an For NASA and most private aerospace companies,
extremely difficult job.” He describes the challenge a single crash is a setback that can take years to re-
with evident relish. “It’s like, if this was a video cover from. SpaceX works more like a Silicon Valley
game, the setting is on maximum but not impos- startup, where the goal is to fail quickly and iterate.
sible.” In the past six years, SpaceX has successfully This gets expensive fast. Over Thanksgiving, Musk
landed the first stage of 90 of its Falcon 9 rockets emailed employees that Starship’s new Raptor en-
and reflown 72 of them. Musk has yet to achieve gine was facing a “production crisis” that could
full reusability by reflying both rocket stages. bankrupt SpaceX if it did not achieve a “Starship
flight rate of at least once every two weeks next
Before Musk, America’s space industry was year.” In a “worst-case situation,” he tells TIME,
moribund. In 2011, NASA mothballed the last “bankruptcy is not out of the question, not that
space shuttle, after inking a deal with SpaceX it’s likely.” The point, he says, was to remind staff
to make uncrewed cargo resupply runs to the that “we cannot lose our edge or get complacent.”
International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX made
its first such trip in 2012, two years ahead of the With its Starlink program, SpaceX hopes to
competition, and in 2014, NASA tapped the com- launch a constellation of as many as 42,000 sat-
pany and behemoth Boeing to fly crews to the ISS. ellites to provide Internet service to the world.
But that kind of orbiting swarm wreaks havoc on
‘He was my little genius sky gazing. “Just how much stuff do you want to
boy. From the time he put up there?” asks Neal Lane, senior fellow in sci-
was 3, we used to call ence and technology at Rice University. “The as-
tronomers are appropriately making noise about
him that—Genius Boy.’ interfering with their ability to observe.” (Gwynne
Shotwell, SpaceX’s president, tells TIME the com-
—MAYE MUSK, ELON’S MOTHER pany is working on the problem.)

In April, NASA selected SpaceX to build the
lunar lander for the Artemis program, thanks in
part to a lowball $2.9 billion bid. A bid by Jeff
Bezos’ Blue Origin came in at more than twice
that. Bezos sued, accusing Musk of undercutting

42 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

MUSK’S VENTURES HAVE SPANNED EVERYTHING FROM INTERNET
STARTUPS TO SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY FOR TIME 43

the competition. Musk took the op- THE BODY the variables—federal regulations and

portunity to rub his victory in the face OF A TESLA production schedules, test-flight tar-
of the world’s second richest man: “If MODEL 3 AT THE gets and bathroom requirements. “I’ll
lobbying & lawyers could get u to orbit, be surprised if we’re not landing on
COMPANY’S
FREMONT, CALIF.,

Bezos would be on Pluto,” he tweeted. FACTORY Mars within five years,” he finally says.

In November, the federal claims court What will humans do there, and for

ruled in Musk’s favor. how long? We have had little use for the

Sometime in the next month or two, Musk moon since landing there 50 years ago. Musk ar-

hopes to launch the Starship into orbit for the gues that interplanetary life is the next great leap

first time, powered by 33 engines at the base of of evolution, like the emergence of multicellular

an enormous, 230-ft. steel tube containing nearly organisms, and also that Mars could provide a

7.5 million lb. of supercooled liquid fuel. “I think home for humanity if Earth becomes uninhab-

we can do a loop around the moon maybe as soon itable. Experts aren’t so sure. “I have real doubts

as 2023,” he says, and land on the moon’s surface about the viability of a large settlement on Mars,”

within three years. says John Logsdon, founder of Space Policy Insti-

SpaceX is a private company, so whether it’s tute. “What would people do there to earn a liv-

profitable is not publicly known. (Note: TIME’s ing? What would be the basis of a Mars economy?”

co-owners, Marc and Lynne Benioff, have in- Musk is not deterred. Gamboling around the

vested in companies connected to space explo- concrete slab littered with massive machines of

ration, including SpaceX. They have no involve- his own creation, Musk acknowledges his lat-

ment in TIME’s editorial decisions.) But that’s est rocket could go the way of his first three.

not the point, Musk says. One day, he hopes, the “I wouldn’t say that our odds of getting to orbit

rockets will carry 100 people at a time to Mars, the first time are high,” he says. “I would say opti-

where the ships can be refilled with fuel manu- mistically it’s 50%.” The dark surface of the Gulf

factured on the Red Planet and shuttled back to stretches over his shoulder; cell phones here pick

Earth. Asked when he sees this happening, Musk up signals from Mexico, a stone’s throw away.

pauses for a long moment, as if calculating all How does it feel to think about the most powerful

44 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022 JUSTIN KANEPS—THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

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2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

rocket ever built exploding in a billion-dollar fire- Musk’s adviser Omead Afshar, who slept on a cot.
ball? “Pretty scary!” he says, grinning. “So, excite- “He would be in there reviewing the system, redo-
ment guaranteed on launch day!” ing the code himself, solving problems, bouncing
from station to station. He will endure the most
Then the tour is over. Musk turns, whistles to pain to lead by example, and all of us around him
Marvin and strides briskly to his waiting Tesla. really can’t complain when we’re not working
that hard.” For Musk’s 47th birthday that June,
ElEctric cars, like homemade rockets, were a he briefly paused for a bite of grocery-store cake,
graveyard of well-intentioned investment before then went back to the paint-shop tunnel.
Musk barreled into an industry in which he had
no academic training. For decades, legacy auto- The cars finally rolled off the line, but soon
makers had stymied the development of electric enough, Musk shot himself in the foot. In
vehicles, lobbying against fuel-efficiency stan- August 2018, he tweeted that he had funding to
dards and filing lawsuits against state mandates take the company private for $420 a share. The
to develop the cars. Tesla’s business was sustained Securities and Exchange Commission sued him,
in part by generous support from the federal gov- alleging he had committed securities fraud. The
ernment, though the company got off the ground resulting settlement cost him his perch as Tesla’s
before it became available. A $465 million federal board chair, though he was able to retain the title
loan in 2010 helped prop up Tesla at a crucial junc- of CEO. The adult supervision extends only to a
ture, and its customers have benefited from hefty point. Three months later, Tesla sent a software up-
tax incentives. date that enabled the car to make farting noises on
command. (“Please put ‘invented car fart’ on my
Musk believed from the start that advances in gravestone,” Musk tweeted.) But for all the imma-
lithium-ion battery technology made long-range turity, his public profile has an upside as well. “We
don’t spend any money on advertising,” notes Tesla
‘He is a humanist— board chair Robyn Denholm. “His ability to com-
not in the sense of municate with a very wide range of people glob-
being a nice person, ally through social media, I think, has been a huge
because he isn’t.’ asset to the company—you know, by and large.” His
longtime friend Bill Lee, who finds his memes and
—ROBERT ZUBRIN, FOUNDER OF THE MARS SOCIETY trolling “charming,” says he was the one who per-
suaded Musk to join Twitter. “I remember when
electric vehicles possible. In practice, it wasn’t that he had zero followers,” Lee recalls. “He’s probably
easy. Tesla’s first decade was plagued by unmet the most viral social influencer ever.”
deadlines, technical snafus and cost overruns. Dur-
ing the 2008 financial crisis, cash was so tight, the Today, thanks in large part to Musk’s pace-
company came within days of missing payroll. With setting, auto companies from VW to Nissan are
a dwindling fortune, Musk borrowed $20 million jostling to invest billions in electric vehicles.
from SpaceX to lend the company, cajoled an- Their about-face is driven less by altruism than
other $20 million out of investors and raised the by a dawning realization that Musk is eating their
price of the company’s debut sports car to survive. lunch. “Musk and Tesla forced the change,” says
Michelle Krebs, an analyst at Cox Automotive. “He
Tesla went public in 2010, but for years it re- proved that there was a market for EVs.”
mained in crisis mode. With production behind
schedule, and the company at risk of running out of That has made Musk arguably the biggest
money, Musk spent much of April 2018 sleeping on private contributor to the fight against climate
the factory floor as he tried to iron out assembly- change. Had the 800,000 Teslas sold in the last
line issues. “He would wake up, look at the moni- year been gas-powered cars, they would have emit-
tors on the wall and go chase the constraint,” says ted more than 40 million metric tons of CO₂ over
their lifetimes—equivalent to the annual emis-
sions of Finland. But EVs may ultimately be less
important to the climate fight than the central in-
novation that made them possible: batteries. Tesla
has repurposed the lightweight, energy-dense cells
that power its cars for huge grid-scale batteries
that provide essential backup for renewables. De-
mand for Tesla’s smaller home-based Powerwall,

46 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

TIME SPOKE WITH MUSK AT HIS BOCA CHICA, TEXAS,
FACILITY ON DEC. 3. EXCERPTS FROM THE CONVERSATION:

-
47





2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

which can store electricity from rooftop solar sys- HOW A QUIET, BOOKISH CHILD FROM
tems, has spiked as consumers look for alterna- PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA, BECAME
tives to the grid, driven by everything from Feb- THE RICHEST MAN ON EARTH
ruary’s Texas power shortage to the fire risk in
California that has led to power shutoffs. In some
areas, software enables utilities to tap into home-
energy reserves when the grid is strained, instead
of turning on high-polluting standby generators.
Gerry Hawkes, a 72-year-old forester from Wood-
stock, Vt., has been participating in one such pro-
gram since 2017, allowing his local utility to draw
power from a pair of Tesla backup batteries in his
basement. “It makes sense for power backup, and
it makes sense for climate change,” Hawkes says.

Some of Musk’s initiatives have generated more
controversy. His effort to produce and sell solar
roof tiles has stumbled. The Boring Co., which
Musk started in 2016, put forward a plan to alle-
viate urban congestion by building miles of under-
ground tunnels to whisk cars along at more than
100 m.p.h., but critics say plain old subways would
be more efficient and equitable. Musk’s move to
accept Bitcoin as payment for Teslas this spring
prompted accusations of hypocrisy; the crypto-
currency’s computational “mining” operations are
a climate disaster, drawing gargantuan amounts
of electricity to process transactions. Musk sub-
sequently shelved the plan.

Musk’s January announcement of a $100 mil-
lion climate prize rankled some environmentalists
because of its inclusion of proposals for direct-air
carbon capture—giant machines to suck carbon di-
oxide out of the atmosphere. While some experts
say researching that technology is necessary, oth-
ers see it as a costly distraction. “Direct-air cap-
ture is a boondoggle,” says Mark Jacobson, director
of Stanford’s Atmosphere/Energy program. “We
can’t waste our time and money on things that just
don’t work very well.”

Tesla’s hard-charging approach has also raised
concerns. In May 2020, Musk reopened his Fre-
mont, Calif., factory against local public-health
orders. “It makes you wonder if your life is worth
$20 an hour,” an anonymous Tesla worker told
SF Weekly. Musk says the regulators were wrong. In
March, the National Labor Relations Board ruled
that a 2018 Musk tweet had broken labor laws, as
did the company’s firing of a union activist. Tesla
is appealing the ruling.

This summer, the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration opened a probe into Tesla’s
Autopilot system, which has been involved in 11
crashes with parked emergency vehicles since
2018, leaving 17 people injured and one dead.

50 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022