NEW YORK: Not too long after calling her "beautiful" at an event in New York, American billionaire businessman Elon Musk - the founder of SpaceX and Tesla who also owns X (formerly Twitter) - on Wednesday denied any romantic relationship with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
At a glittering awards ceremony held on the sidelines of the 79th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on Monday evening, New York time, Musk had bestowed an Atlantic Council Global Citizen Award on Meloni, calling the Italian PM "someone who is even more beautiful on the inside than she was on the outside."
"She's also someone who is authentic, honest, truthful. That can't always be said about politicians," Musk added while praising Italy's economic growth and record low unemployment.
The Italian leader responded by referring to Musk as a "precious genius".
"I thank Elon for the beautiful words that he had for me, and for his precious genius for the era in which we live," she said at the start of her speech.
As videos and photographs of Musk and Meloni went viral on social media, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, which calls itself "the most notorious Tesla club in the world", shared a picture of Musk and Meloni from the event late Tuesday night, asking followers, "do you think they'll date?"
Responding to the post early Wednesday, Musk clarified, "We are not dating".
Replying to another post that said "we all know what happened next", Musk made it clear that he was at the event with his mother, Maye Musk.
"I was there with my Mom. There is no romantic relationship whatsoever with PM Meloni," Musk wrote on X.
In December, Musk travelled to Rome to attend Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party gathering 'Atreju' before Christmas.
"We invited Elon Musk because Elon Musk is a person who has things to say, who is relevant in the current context, also on the topic of artificial intelligence. You will know that Elon Musk, who is one of the people who developed artificial intelligence, has asked for a moratorium on the use of artificial intelligence precisely because he is a person who knows it better than us and who can help you on this," Meloni had said while justifying invitation to Musk.
At the convention, which was also attended by the then UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Musk had advised Italians to increase the low birth rate in the country.
"My advice to all government leaders and people is: make sure you have children to create a new generation," he had said.