1. Tanked dogecoin when he hosted SNL

2. Led Tesla to a $1 trillion market capitalization

3. Launched the first crewed mission to space without professional astronauts

4. Tweeted, “I keep forgetting that you’re still alive” to Sen. Bernie Sanders

5. Wrote many other crude jokes on Twitter

6. Became the first person to have a net worth above $300 billion

7. Moved Tesla's HQ from California to Texas

8. Sold $15 billion worth of Tesla stock after polling Twitter users

9. Was ordered to pay a Black Tesla employee $137 million over racial discrimination at the workplace

10. Attacked President Biden’s Build Back Better plan and argued against EV subsidies

11. Launched almost 900 broadband satellites through SpaceX’s Starlink program

…and a lot more...

2021 showcased the best and worst of Elon Musk, who is a fusion of business mogul and celebrity we haven’t seen in generations. His big bet with Tesla has been vindicated—it’s the most valuable automaker by a longshot, and other car manufacturers are spending tens of billions on EVs to catch up. One of his other ventures, SpaceX, is the clear leader in the burgeoning market for space tourists and enterprises.

Yet Musk’s antics—from trolling tweets to pumping memecoins to sparring with lawmakers—are off-putting to many people and threaten to overshadow his otherwise invaluable contributions to society. Tesla has also been the subject of numerous regulatory probes into the safety of its vehicles:

In August, federal auto safety authorities began investigating 11 crashes involving Tesla cars that allegedly struck stationary first-responder vehicles while the company’s Autopilot software was engaged.

Facing heat from regulators, Tesla pulled a feature that allows video games to be played on the vehicle’s main touchscreen while the car is in motion.