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Berlin (dpa) - Tesla boss Elon Musk will receive this year's Axel Springer Award on Tuesday.
The 49-year-old star entrepreneur is expected in Berlin regardless of the corona pandemic.
The electric car manufacturer is building a factory in Grünheide near Berlin in Brandenburg.
Tesla plans to build up to 500,000 electric cars per year with around 12,000 employees there from next summer.
Musk recently announced that the world's largest battery factory should also be built in Grünheide.
Musk had announced the construction of the factory in November of last year when he came to Berlin to receive the “Golden Steering Wheel” from “Auto Bild” and “Bild am Sonntag”.
Musk is also the head of the space company SpaceX.
This is one of the focus of the award ceremony.
The motto of the evening is "An Evening for Elon Musk - Mission to Mars".
One of the company's goals is to send space travelers to Mars.
He also founded the company Neuralink, which aims to connect the human brain with computers.
At the end of August, Musk presented the prototype of a device that can transmit information between neurons and a smartphone.
It is roughly the size of a coin and should be positioned in the skull.
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At the same time, the 49-year-old is known for controversial statements.
In the spring, for example, he downplayed the risk of the corona virus and predicted that there would be no more new infections in the USA at the end of April.
He denounced the restrictions in California to protect the population as "fascist" and railed that people were "locked in their homes and their constitutional rights violated."
Among other things, he did not like the fact that Tesla's main plant near San Francisco had to remain closed.
Musk also risked a confrontation with the authorities in order to restart production of the electric cars there faster.
In mid-November, Musk suspected that he was suffering from Covid-19 himself - but was unsure after contradicting test results.
The undoped prize of the Springer Group (“Bild”, “Welt”) is being awarded for the fifth time.
This annually honors people who, according to Springer, are particularly innovative, create and change markets, shape culture and at the same time face their social responsibility.
Previous winners were Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the economist and critic of online platforms, Shoshana Zuboff.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201201-99-525699 / 2
Press release
Information about the award