--- description: Find out why Elon Musk is one of the 100 most influential people of 2023. title: Elon Musk: The 100 Most Influential People of 2023 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4822d67a560ce8ce/698a3bdd096a942ff36ada56/Elon-Musk-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 13, 2023 # Elon Musk by Kara Swisher  Mark Mahaney for TIME I first met Elon Musk in 1999 when he was just another Silicon Valley techie with a startup (in his case, X.com). But he soon distinguished himself using his boundless imagination and relentless drive that has landed rockets on platforms in the ocean, pioneered the [electric-vehicle revolution](https://time.com/6224562/competition-tesla-elon-musk/ "undefined"), and changed how we think about energy in many forms. Cool, right? Not so much these days, because what I did not see coming a mile off was Musk’s [wholesale transformation](https://time.com/6170696/elon-musk-politics-twitter/ "undefined") into the world’s richest online troll after his [purchase of Twitter](https://time.com/6239534/elon-musk-one-year-after-person-of-the-year/ "undefined"). It’s a shame, because much of what he has tried to do [over his career](https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2021-elon-musk-choice/ "undefined")—even if some of it is still an aspiration—has been bold and inspirational, especially compared with most of the more anodyne techies for whom a better online dating service is the peak of innovation. But under Musk’s erratic rule, Twitter has become a [nonstop grievance tantrum](https://time.com/6240415/twitter-digital-history-at-risk/ "undefined") we must all endure, and he wastes far too much of his time fiddling on his toxic violin while it burns. What’s the opposite of progress? Elon Musk 2023. _Swisher is a journalist and host of the podcast_ [On With Kara Swisher](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-with-kara-swisher/id1643307527 "undefined")_. Listen to Swisher’s_ _podcast,_ [_“Elon Musk: Someone I Used to Know.”_](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/elon-musk-somebody-that-i-used-to-know/id1643307527?i=1000586088919 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269883/elon-musk-2023/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269883/elon-musk-2023/"},"headline":"Elon Musk","datePublished":"2023-04-13T10:32:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:33.211Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269883/elon-musk-2023/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","sponsorshipblock","TIME100 2023"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4822d67a560ce8ce/698a3bdd096a942ff36ada56/Elon-Musk-time100-2023.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/blt4822d67a560ce8ce/698a3bdd096a942ff36ada56/Elon-Musk-time100-2023.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-2023/6269883/elon-musk-2023/","name":"Elon Musk"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME100 | The 100 Most Influential People of 2023","description":"See all the people on Time's 2023 Time 100 list","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/P6RIsapV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-04-13T10:30:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P6RIsapV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269883/elon-musk-2023/","duration":"PT1M53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269883/elon-musk-2023/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```