Elon Musk, the brains behind Tesla and SpaceX, is Time’s 2021 Person of the Year, the magazine announced Monday.

Musk, 50, has been making headlines for years for his innovations in electric vehicles and space travel, but Time called 2021 “the year of Elon Unbound.”

The magazine noted that in April SpaceX won NASA’s exclusive contract to put U.S. astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972. In May, he hosted “Saturday Night Live.” And in October, Hertz announced it planned to add 100,000 Teslas to its rental car fleet. 

The world’s richest man — estimated by Forbes to be worth $265 billion — also helped launch NASA’s first anti-asteroid planetary-defense test, and his influence in the financial world is so great that he helped fuel the GameStop-meme stock craze through his tweets. 

The oft-unconventional Musk also roiled markets by selling off 10% of his Tesla stock after first polling his 65 million Twitter followers about whether he should. Meanwhile, he’s trying to perfect self-driving cars and exploring how to build a self-sustaining city on Mars.

“This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars,” Time's profile described Musk.

Musk is the first person to be named Person of the Year based on his business accomplishments since Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg in 2010.

The magazine’s tradition dates back to 1927. It's not necessarily an honor, but rather a recognition of "the individual or group who most shaped the previous 12 months, for better or for worse," Time says.

Time has expanded its recognition to other categories. This year, pop star Olivia Rodrigo was named its Entertainer of the Year, gymnast Simone Biles was chosen as Athlete of the Year, and vaccine scientists were honored as the Heroes of the Year.

In October, Musk announced he was moving Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas. The move was spurred by his frustration over coronavirus lockdown orders in California to pause production last year.