A federal jury in San Francisco has held billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk responsible for misleading Twitter shareholders during his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform.
The verdict, announced after a three-week trial in California, found that Musk’s tweets in May 2022 contained false and misleading statements, contributing to a decline in Twitter’s share price during a crucial stage of the takeover.
The class-action lawsuit, filed on behalf of shareholders who sold their stock between mid-May and early October 2022, argued that Musk’s claims—particularly that the acquisition was temporarily “on hold” pending verification of bot accounts—were used to manipulate Twitter’s valuation.
Jurors determined that Musk violated US securities laws against deceptive statements capable of influencing market prices. Estimated damages could reach $2.6 billion, potentially imposing a major financial penalty if upheld.
At the time, Musk was under pressure from falling Tesla shares, raising questions about his financing of the acquisition. Despite initial hesitations, he completed the deal in October 2022 after Twitter sought legal enforcement and later rebranded the platform as X.
Musk’s legal team described the ruling as a temporary setback and confirmed plans to appeal. The judgment is a rare courtroom loss for Musk, who was cleared the same day in a separate defamation case in Texas and previously won a related shareholder lawsuit linked to his 2018 Tesla tweets.
As of early 2026, Musk remains the world’s richest individual, with a net worth estimated at $839 billion, largely tied to Tesla and SpaceX holdings.
