Their unlikely online friendship has blossomed since Pathole was a teenager, with the mercurial billionaire responding to him over hundreds of tweets and private messages with headline-making company updates and even life advice.

This week, the two finally met face to face, when Pathole travelled to the United States—his first trip overseas—to begin a master's degree there in business analytics.

"He is super genuine. Like, way down-to-earth. He's humble," the 23-year-old told AFP beforehand. "The way he takes his time to respond to me... just shows."

Musk is a prolific user of Twitter, often posting more than 30 times a day to his 103 million followers.

But it remains a mystery why the SpaceX and Tesla boss, with a net worth of $266 billion, maintains regular contact with the young Indian.

"To be very honest, I have no idea. I think he must be like, really intrigued by my questions," Pathole told AFP from his parents' upper-middle-class home in the western city of Pune.

Pathole's account is one of only a small handful that the billionaire frequently replies to—an average of once every two days, based on Musk's public Twitter posts since the start of 2020.