‘Time’ chose Elon Musk as person of the year 2021. The founder of Tesla and SpaceX was interviewed by the magazine on December 3 and rejected the label of “richest man in the world“, arguing that men of power like Vladimir Putin they are decidedly wealthier than he is. “I can’t invade countries and things like that,” the South African businessman scoffed.
Speaking of Tesla’s market valuation, Musk explained that he had called it too high in the past “to curb expectations.” “The current valuation is quite high, which suggests that the market has confidence in the company’s future, because it is certainly not based on profitability, that’s for sure.” Musk expressed concern over the excesses of optimism about SpaceX as well.
“If we had spacecraft and thrusters but no engines, we’d lose billions of dollars a quarter. And if that continues, bankruptcy wouldn’t be out of the question, ”he explained,“ I feel like we’ve had so many successful years and many people in the company have never seen a launch fail. Many people have never seen a recession in their careers. ‘ “If someone entered the workforce after 2009, it seemed to them that things were always going upwards, I feared we could settle down,” he added.