A U.S. federal jury has ruled that Elon Musk misled Twitter shareholders with false statements while negotiating his $44 billion acquisition, a verdict that could cost him billions.
The class-action lawsuit focused on two tweets Musk posted in May 2022, which jurors determined contained misleading claims that drove down Twitter’s stock price. The case was filed by investor Giuseppe Pampena on behalf of shareholders who sold their shares between mid-May and early October 2022.
Plaintiff attorneys estimated potential damages at around $2.6 billion. Musk’s lawyers immediately said he would appeal, describing the decision as a “setback” but highlighting his record of winning high-profile lawsuits.
On the same day, a Texas court cleared him in a separate defamation case, and in 2023, he was acquitted of similar charges in a Tesla shareholder suit related to his 2018 tweets.
The lawsuit alleged Musk’s statements were intended to pressure Twitter’s board into renegotiating the purchase price or creating leverage to back out of the deal. Musk ultimately completed the acquisition in late October 2022 and later rebranded the platform as X, integrating it with his AI startup xAI and private space venture SpaceX.
Forbes recently estimated Musk’s net worth at $839 billion, largely tied to Tesla, SpaceX, and other holdings.
