Elon Musk turns 51, becomes sixth most followed person on Twitter

Elon Musk turned 51 today. But hours before his birthday, he also hit another milestone - by becoming one of only six people in the world to cross 100 million followers on Twitter.

The other 5 most followed people on the platform in order are Barack Obama (132.1 million), Justin Bieber (114.1 million), Katy Perry (108.8 million), Rihanna (106.9 million), and Cristiano Ronaldo (101.4 million). Elon Musk follows at 100.1 million followers.

The milestone is especially significant in light of the Tesla CEO's ongoing $44 billion bid to take over Twitter. Just last week, the company's board unanimously recommended that shareholders approve Musk's bid.

Musk himself has been unusually silent on the microblogging platform since June 21. The eccentric and influential visionary is often very vocal with his opinions on everything from politics to baby Yoda, sparking vehement debates and even causing stocks to soar with a single word (remember Gamestonk?).

His faithful fans took to the platform on Tuesday to wish the icon and express their admiration for him.

Musk's brother, Kimbal, posted a throwback photo of the duo when they were younger. He captioned it "Happy birthday bro ❤️ thank you for 50 years of laughs and love"

His mother, Maye, took to the platform to wish her son too, and thanked him "for making the world a better place in the past 1/4 century" (referring to the fact that the photo she posted was taken 25 years ago). She added the hashtag #ProudMom.

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