A trial into a tweet by Elon Musk has begun as the billionaire is accused of causing Tesla to lose billions because of the tweet.
Musk in the tweet alleged that he would take Tesla private in a $72bn (£58.7bn) buyout and now Tesla shareholders, who say that he manipulated the share price of the company decided to sue.
In 2018, he tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take the carmaker private.
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However the funding was not secured – and Tesla was not taken private
Shareholders said that they lost billions of dollars due to the tweet after the share price plummeted.
Musk, however, argued that he believed he had secured funding from Saudi Arabia’s Investment Fund and did not commit securities fraud.
If the jury rules in the shareholder’s favor, the Tesla CEO may be ordered to pay billions of dollars in damages.
