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A federal jury in the United States found Elon Musk liable on Friday for misleading Twitter shareholders by attempting to lower the company’s stock price to renegotiate or potentially cancel his $44 billion acquisition in 2022.
The ruling from a San Francisco federal court came during a high-profile civil trial, where Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual, was accused of making false social media claims that Twitter had exaggerated the number of bot accounts—fake or spam profiles—on its platform.
While damages have not yet been finalized, shareholder attorney Francis Bottini estimated they could reach approximately $2.5 billion.
“Being the world’s richest person doesn’t give you a free pass,” Bottini stated. “If you have the ability to influence markets with your tweets, then you are responsible for any harm caused to investors.”
In response, Musk’s legal team at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan described the verdict as “a bump in the road,” expressing their confidence in appealing for a favorable outcome.
The trial started on March 2, with jurors beginning deliberations this past Tuesday.
Musk has frequently opted to face shareholder lawsuits in court rather than settle. Past legal disputes include a 2023 case in San Francisco over accusations that Musk defrauded Tesla shareholders by falsely asserting in 2018 that he had secured funding to privatize Tesla—an assertion that resulted in financial losses for investors—and a separate Delaware case contesting his $139 billion Tesla compensation package, both of which Musk won.
Despite ongoing legal battles, Musk completed his Twitter acquisition in October 2022, later rebranding the platform as X.
### Musk Found Responsible for Two Statements
Twitter shareholders challenged three statements Musk made shortly after agreeing to buy Twitter in April 2022, specifically regarding whether the platform was overwhelmed with bots.
Jurors concluded Musk was responsible for two of these statements. One claimed the deal was “pending confirmation” that bot accounts accounted for less than 5% of users, while another suggested the bot percentage could be “much higher” than 20%, asserting the deal could not proceed unless Twitter’s CEO proved the bot count was under 5%.
However, the jury also determined the shareholders failed to prove that Musk engaged in a deliberate scheme to deceive them.
Musk’s lawyer, Michael Lifrak, argued that Musk’s concerns about bots were genuine and that speaking openly about the issue did not amount to fraud or malicious intent.
The lawsuit involved investors who claimed to have sold Twitter shares at artificially depressed prices between May 13 and October 4, 2022.
Musk is also involved in separate negotiations to resolve a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil lawsuit accusing him of delaying disclosures of his initial Twitter stock purchases in 2022—allowing him to buy more shares at lower prices before the market was aware of his activity.
In February, Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX acquired his artificial intelligence firm xAI, which owned X, making the combined entity the most valuable private company worldwide, valued at about $1.25 trillion at the time.
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