A San Francisco jury has found Elon Musk liable for misleading Twitter shareholders during his 2022 acquisition of the company, opening the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to potential damages of up to $2.6 billion. The verdict concludes a class-action lawsuit centered on two tweets and a podcast comment from May 2022, where Musk suggested the $44 billion deal was “temporarily on hold.” Following those statements, Twitter’s stock price fell nearly 10% in one trading session.
The nine-person jury determined that Musk’s tweets constituted misleading statements that caused investors to sell shares at an artificially depressed price. However, the jury separately found that his remarks during a contemporaneous podcast did not constitute a scheme to defraud investors. The lawsuit alleged that Musk’s public comments about the deal’s status violated securities laws by influencing the market based on false or misleading information.
This ruling marks a significant legal setback for Musk, who is often characterized as “Teflon Elon” for his resilience in high-profile cases. In 2023, a federal jury in the same courthouse cleared him of similar investor fraud charges related to his 2018 statements about taking Tesla private. The current case, however, focused specifically on the timeline and public communications surrounding the finalized Twitter acquisition.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Molumphy described the verdict as a victory for market integrity, stating it “sends a strong message that just because you’re a rich and powerful person, you still have to obey the law.” Musk’s legal team from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan announced plans to appeal, noting the mixed verdict where the jury found no overarching fraud scheme. “We view today’s verdict… as a bump in the road,” the statement read.
The potential financial exposure, estimated at $2.6 billion, is a fraction of Musk’s reported net worth of approximately $814 billion. The next phase will determine exact damages. The outcome reinforces legal risks for corporate executives whose public communications, particularly on social media, can directly impact securities markets. The case also highlights ongoing scrutiny of high-profile figures’ adherence to disclosure regulations during major corporate transactions. Musk, a prolific user of the rebranded platform X, has not publicly commented on the decision.
