If anyone is making strides in Germany, it’s Elon Musk and it is not just about building a Giga factory in Berlin but being honored for his great entrepreneurial spirit.
Last week, Musk received the Axel Springer award from Axel Springer SE, the largest digital publishing house in Europe, which is based in Germany. Axel Springer bestows its award to individuals who have inventive personalities that showcase extraordinary innovation. It pays tribute to those who are making an impact on changing markets and shaping cultures while shouldering social responsibilities.
Musk was in Germany on the 1 December to be part of the Axel Springer ceremony, An Evening for Elon Musk – Mission to Mars. The event used a combination of striking multimedia elements to acknowledge the vision, work, and life of the innovative entrepreneur. Axel Springer CEO, Mathias Döpfner had an hour long discussion with Musk to get into his mind on what inspires him and his visions for the future.
Receiving the 2020 award, Musk joins past winners who include Shoshana Zuboff (2019), Jeff Bezos (2018), Sir Timothy Berners-Lee (2017), and Mark Zuckerberg (2016).
Germany is seeing a surge in adopting battery-powered vehicles with registrations surpassing those in California. The Tesla Giga Berlin is due to open early next year with the promise of producing 500,000 electric vehicles annually. With Tesla’s growing presence in Europe, it has set itself up in the right position to be a strong competitor in the global EV industry but perhaps more like setting the benchmark for every other auto manufacturer who wants to have a foot hold in this growing market.
Click here to watch the full broadcast of the awards evening.
Musk Confirms Move to Texas
In other news, we reported earlier in the week about Elon Musk’s move to Tesla, and it has now been confirmed by the man himself. At the Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit, Musk confirmed he has moved to Texas while still maintaining Space X and Tesla’s major operations in California.
During the CEO Council Summit, he was asked directly about the rumors of his move:
“First of all, Tesla and SpaceX obviously have massive operations in California. In fact, it’s worth noting that Tesla is the last car company still manufacturing cars in California. SpaceX is the last aerospace company still doing significant manufacturing in California. So, there used to be over a dozen car plants in California and California used to be the center of aerospace manufacturing! My companies are the last two left...That’s a very important point to make.”
Then finally, the confirmation about Elon Musk leaving California finally came: “For myself, yes I have moved to Texas.”
Musk added that although California has its perks, he feels that Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area have “outsized influence in the world,” which will probably diminish because of the COVID-19 pandemic as it is driving investors and executives away from California who are being forced to come up with ideas on managing a remote workforce.
He had more to say about his old home state in that “If a team has been winning for too long, they do tend to get a little complacent, a little entitled and then they don’t win the championship anymore. California has been winning for a long time and I think they taking it for granted.”
The Tesla CEO had much to say about Silicon Valley as he continued with remarks on the impact of social media:
“Social media is still very much centered in Silicon Valley. We need to be concerned about mind viruses. You know, just memes that travel very quickly through social media that may or may not be correct. We want to encourage a healthy dialogue. If there’s someone out there who wants to shut down one side of a debate or the other, we should resist that.”
