Elon Musk is TIME's Person of the Year for 2021 and has already spread his wings beyond Earth. The controversial billionaire, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, plans to build "a futuristic Noah's ark" and more.
TIME's Interview With Elon Musk
While Musk may have been interested in expanding his reach in space, he's not solely focused on it. In an interview with TIME on Dec. 3 at his Boca Chica, Texas, facility, Musk talked about his wealth, the booming electric vehicle market, SpaceX's success, future, and the latest on his relationship with Grimes.
Elon Musk's Wealth
When asked about how it's like being the richest person in the world, he remarked that popular sovereigns like Russia's President Putin are significantly richer than him. But unlike Putin, Musk said he couldn't invade countries and 'stuff'.
Musk also discussed income equality. Musk stated that increasing societies have more older people; older people are usually richer. The same is true of income and asset distribution. It is important to account for age when looking at income and asset distribution.
For Musk, however, a lot of the push for higher government involvement and expropriation of assets by the government is pushed by politicians who say that resources shouldn't be in the hands of private individuals, but rather, the government should control them.
Tesla and the Electric Vehicle Market
As a way to soften expectations, Musk suggested the stock's valuation might be too high. But he believes that the current valuation suggests the market has faith in its future because it's certainly not based on historical profitability.
Moreover, Musk already had a say about the electric vehicle market, "If somebody makes better cars than we do and they then sell more cars than we do, I think that's totally fine."
The billionaire who helmed Tesla also added that they wanted to serve as an example to the car industry and hope to make electric cars to accelerate the transition into sustainable energy.
His Confidence in SpaceX
Musk boasts his confidence placed on SpaceX, saying that there have been many successful years at the company, and many people have never experienced failure with a launch. Similarly, many individuals have never experienced a recession in their careers.
"If somebody entered the workforce after 2009, it just seemed like things always go up. I was concerned that we may be getting complacent."
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Musk talks about Grimes
Musk confessed that he and Grimes are 'semi-separated' with their workplace setting them apart since musician Grimes had to go to some tours stay around Los Angeles, while he works remotely in a place he calls the 'techno monastery.'
More From Elon Musk
Moreover, the billionaire shared his concern on Zuckerberg's leadership, with Facebook, now Meta, having an equity structure that will allow Zuckerberg's great-great-grandchildren to control the company. Musk believes that the share structure providing super-voting rights should be removed.
Elon Musk also found his name linked to the rising fame of cryptocurrency.
"I'm not a huge hater of fiat currency like many in the cryptoworld are. But there are advantages with crypto relative to fiat in that fiat currency tends to get diluted by whatever government it is," he told TIME.
He also added that because he played a key role in creating PayPal, he has a unique understanding of the money system.
Often labeled as a 'utopian anarchist,' Musk articulated that he does not mean chaos but rather to not be under anyone's thumb.
Finally, he explained the bizarreness of his tweet, saying that he's not looking into brand optimization and is only interested in tweeting things humorous to him that some may not find funny.
Aside from being the second wealthiest person on Earth, Musk continues to be a central figure in the news as he focuses on space travel and automobiles, as well as his personality many find to be both intriguing and disturbing.
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Written by Thea Felicity