--- description: Find out why Elon Musk is one of the 100 most influential people of 2021. title: Elon Musk: The 100 Most Influential People of 2021 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9874234f493f0e06/698a1cacb3fce3696d0c848d/elon-musk-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 15, 2021 # Elon Musk by Arianna Huffington  Elon Musk Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz—Bloomberg/Getty Images Elon Musk Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesLiesa Johannssen-Koppitz—Bloomberg/Getty Images It’s hard to think of a person less able to be summed up in 150 words than Elon Musk. He is, after all, a man who has devoted his life to breaking free of limits and constraints. And he’s taking mankind along with him. The word entrepreneur doesn’t quite do him justice. Since co-founding and selling PayPal, the list of audacious projects launched by Musk includes [Tesla](https://time.com/collection-post/5953762/tesla/ "undefined"), [SpaceX](https://time.com/6083975/inside-spacex-crew-dragon-spacecraft/ "undefined")—which this year [won a $2.9 billion NASA contract](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/science/spacex-moon-nasa.html "undefined") to land astronauts on the moon—and the Boring Company, which is known for digging tunnels for electric vehicles. Musk isn’t just changing how we transport ourselves, he’s augmenting human possibilities. And by doing it all with his relentlessly optimistic, space-half-full showmanship, he’s offering a model for how we can solve the big, existential challenges in front of us. _Huffington is founder and CEO of Thrive Global_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095970/elon-musk-innovators/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095970/elon-musk-innovators/"},"headline":"Elon Musk","datePublished":"2021-09-15T11:19:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:32.831Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095970/elon-musk-innovators/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","T100 2021"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9874234f493f0e06/698a1cacb3fce3696d0c848d/elon-musk-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9874234f493f0e06/698a1cacb3fce3696d0c848d/elon-musk-time-100-2021.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095970/elon-musk-innovators/","name":"Elon Musk"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME100 | See Everyone on the 2021 TIME100 List","description":"See every 2021 TIME100 Honoree in One Minute","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ZgB6AGK2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2021-09-15T10:45:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZgB6AGK2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095970/elon-musk-innovators/","duration":"PT57S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095970/elon-musk-innovators/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```