TIME selects ‘Architects of AI’ as its Person of the Year

TIME Magazine’s 2025 Person of the Year: The Leaders Behind AI

Every December, TIME Magazine selects an individual or group who has had the most significant impact on global events—whether positive or negative. In recent years, the title has gone to figures such as President Donald Trump and pop icon Taylor Swift, who was credited by some with boosting the economy through her Eras Tour. Notably, in 1938, Adolf Hitler was chosen for the distinction.

For 2025, TIME has shifted its focus from a single person to a collective: the “Architects of AI.” This group consists of the chief executives at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution in the United States. With AI dominating public discourse—bringing optimism to a select few and economic unease to many, according to Edelman research—this choice reflects the current climate.

The magazine’s feature notes, “For years, humanity braced itself for the emergence of intelligent machines. Visionaries like Sam Altman and Elon Musk cautioned that harnessing this technology could lead to unpredictable consequences. Yet, in 2025, the conversation about responsible AI use gave way to a race to implement it at breakneck speed.”

TIME’s cover highlights several key figures: Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Elon Musk of Tesla, Sam Altman from OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Lisa Su from AMD, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Demis Hassabis from Google DeepMind, and Fei-Fei Li of World Labs. These leaders have both competed and collaborated as they drive the AI industry forward.

According to TIME, these innovators have invested billions into what is described as one of the largest infrastructure undertakings in history. Their efforts have influenced government strategies, intensified international rivalry, and accelerated the integration of AI into society.

This is the account of how artificial intelligence transformed our world in 2025—ushering in changes that are thrilling, daunting, and unprecedented. It’s the story of how visionaries like Huang and his peers took charge of technological progress, making choices that are redefining our information environment, affecting the climate, and altering our livelihoods. AI has become perhaps the most significant instrument in global power dynamics since nuclear technology first appeared.

Although TIME officially revealed its Person of the Year on Thursday morning, the cover image surfaced a day earlier on the prediction platform Polymarket.

BREAKING: TIME Person of the Year reportedly leaked. pic.twitter.com/oe3okxsXoZ