--- description: Find out why Elon Musk is one of the 100 most influential people of 2025. title: Elon Musk: The 100 Most Influential People of 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba9f4fcff59c9e34/6998c5bdf1b082329f6f13d0/time100-2025-elon-musk.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 16, 2025 # Elon Musk by [Simon Shuster](/author/simon-shuster/) ## Simon Shuster Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent  WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 5: CEO of Tesla Elon Musk departs after a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans, at the US Capitol, on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Graeme Sloan for The Washington Post via Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 5: CEO of Tesla Elon Musk departs after a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans, at the US Capitol, on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Graeme Sloan for The Washington Post via Getty Images)Graeme Sloan—The Washington Post/Getty Images The meteoric rise of Elon Musk has been punctuated by bouts of frenetic energy, which usually come over him when he takes on a new challenge. Musk’s biographer, former TIME editor Walter Isaacson, has described these periods as “demon mode,” and they have led Musk to some of his greatest conquests, like his reinvention of electric cars at Tesla, his takeover of Twitter, or his push into the cosmos with SpaceX, his rocket company. After spending nearly $290 million in 2024 to help elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, Musk has applied this same energy to the task of dismantling the [federal bureaucracy](https://time.com/7213409/elon-musk-us-government-trump/ "undefined"). In the name of efficiency, he has fired thousands of workers at some government agencies while attempting to close down others entirely. Despite the growing public backlash, Trump has applauded the effort. This time, Musk’s demon mode has destroyed far more than it’s created. And that seems to be the point. _Shuster is a TIME senior correspondent_ Elon Musk Is on the 2025 TIME100 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273786/elon-musk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273786/elon-musk/"},"headline":"Elon Musk","datePublished":"2025-04-16T10:30:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T02:29:06.978Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273786/elon-musk/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","T100Leaders2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba9f4fcff59c9e34/6998c5bdf1b082329f6f13d0/time100-2025-elon-musk.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Simon Shuster","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/simon-shuster/"}],"creator":"Simon Shuster","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba9f4fcff59c9e34/6998c5bdf1b082329f6f13d0/time100-2025-elon-musk.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":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273786/elon-musk/","name":"Elon Musk"}}]}] ```