Is Elon Musk dating Italian PM Meloni? He says...

A picture of billionaire Elon Musk with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at a recent event sparked intense reactions across social media platforms that the two were "dating".

IMAGE: Tesla CEO Elon Musk with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at an event in New York. Photograph: Courtesy @teslaownersSV

Seeing the two together at an award ceremony in New York on Tuesday, netizens exploded the internet with comments like, “I am totally shipping these two. Perfect” and “Now that is the kind of international power couple I can get behind.”

Some users also wrote, “That's Amore (That's love).”

However, Musk silenced all the comments on Wednesday by replying to an X post that questioned if he and Meloni “would date”.

To this, Musk wrote: “Not dating”.

Bestowing an Atlantic Council Global Citizen Award on Giorgia Meloni, Elon Musk said it was an honour to present the accolade to someone who is even “more beautiful on the inside than she was on the outside.”

“She’s also someone who is authentic, honest, truthful — and that can’t always be said about politicians,” he added.

Meloni also took to her official X account and thanked Musk for his remarks.

Meloni received the award for her “strong support of the EU and becoming the first female prime minister of Italy”.

This is not the first time the internet has paired the two leaders.

In December last year, several posts on X claimed that the two were together after Musk accepted Meloni’s invitation to attend a political festival in Rome.