SAN FRANCISO — A jury has determined Elon Musk didn’t deceive buyers with tweets in 2018.

The decision by the 9 jurors was reached after much less that two hours of deliberation following a three-week trial.

The trial pitted Tesla buyers represented in a class-action lawsuit towards Musk, who’s CEO of each the electrical automaker and the Twitter service he purchased for for $44 billion just a few months in the past.

In 2018, Musk tweeted that he had the financing to take Tesla personal though it turned out he hadn’t gotten an iron-clad dedication for an aborted deal that might have price $20 billion to $70 billion to drag off.

It’s a serious vindication for Musk, whose integrity was at stake as nicely a part of a fortune that has established him as one of many world’s richest folks. He may have been saddled with a invoice for billions of {dollars} in damages had the jury discovered him accountable for the 2018 tweets that had already been deemed falsehoods by the choose presiding over the trial.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows under.

As he sat stoically in court docket, Elon Musk on Friday was each vilified as a wealthy narcissist whose reckless conduct dangers “anarchy” and hailed as a visionary looking for the “little man.”

The contrasting portraits of the enigmatic billionaire got here throughout closing arguments in a trial centered on whether or not Musk’s tweeting in 2018 misled Tesla shareholders, steering them in a course that they argue price them billions of {dollars}.

The three-week trial has pitted Tesla buyers represented in a class-action lawsuit towards Musk, who’s CEO of each the electrical automaker and the Twitter service he purchased for for $44 billion just a few months in the past.

After three hours of arguments wrapped up Friday, a nine-person jury started its deliberations within the civil case centered on two tweets Musk posted Aug. 7, 2018 a few Tesla buyout that by no means occurred.

The primary tweet, posted simply earlier than he boarded his personal jet, Musk declared he had “funding secured” to take Tesla personal. A couple of hours later, Musk despatched one other tweet indicating that the deal was imminent.

The tweets brought on Twitter’s inventory to surge throughout a 10-day interval lined by the lawsuit earlier than falling again after Musk deserted a deal during which he by no means had a agency financing dedication, primarily based on proof introduced throughout the three-week trial.

Musk’s resolution to point out up for the closing arguments — though his presence wasn’t required — underscores the significance of the trial’s end result to him.

If the jurors determine the tweets duped buyers, Musk and Tesla could possibly be on the hook for billions of {dollars} in damages.

Nicholas Porritt, a lawyer for the Tesla shareholders, urged the jurors to rebuke Musk for his “free relationship with the reality.”

“Our society is predicated on guidelines,” Porritt stated. “We’d like guidelines to save lots of us from anarchy. Guidelines ought to apply to Elon Musk like everybody else.”

Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, conceded the 2018 tweets had been “technically inaccurate.” However he informed the jurors, “Simply because it’s a foul tweet doesn’t make it a fraud.”

U.S. District Choose Edward Chen, who presided over the trial, determined final 12 months that Musk’s 2018 tweets had been false and has instructed the jury to view them that method.

Throughout roughly eight hours on the stand earlier within the trial, Musk insisted he believed he had lined up the funds from Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund to take Tesla personal after eight years as a publicly held firm. He defended his preliminary August 2018 tweet as well-intentioned and geared toward guaranteeing all Tesla buyers knew the automaker is likely to be on its approach to ending its run as a publicly held firm.

“I had no ailing motive,” Musk testified. “My intent was to do the proper factor for all shareholders.”

Spiro echoed that theme in his closing argument.

“He was making an attempt to incorporate the retail shareholder, the mother and pop, the little man, and never seize extra energy for himself,” Spiro stated.

Porritt, in the meantime, scoffed on the notion that Musk may have concluded he had a agency dedication after a 45-minute assembly at a Tesla manufacturing unit on July 31, 2018, with Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund, given there was no written documentation.

A textual content message that al-Rumayyan despatched later in August that’s a part of the trial proof additionally indicated that the Saudi fund was solely involved in studying extra about Musk’s proposal to take Tesla personal at a time the corporate was valued at about $60 billion.

“Apparently a $60 billion financing dedication was obtained and nobody wrote down a single phrase,” Porritt stated, whereas asserting that quantity was bigger than the mixed financial output of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador.

“Elon Musk apparently thinks it’s simpler to get billions of {dollars} in financing than an auto mortgage or a mortgage,” Pollitt added.

Spiro, although, pointed to Musk’s monitor file serving to to begin and run a listing of corporations that embrace digital cost pioneer PayPal and rocket ship maker SpaceX, along with Tesla. The automaker primarily based in Austin, Texas, is now value practically $600 billion, regardless of a steep decline in its inventory value final 12 months amid considerations that Musk’s buy of Twitter would distract him from Tesla.

Recalling Musk’s roots as a South African immigrant who got here to Silicon Valley to create revolutionary tech corporations, Spiro described his shopper “because the form of one that believes the unattainable is feasible.”

Porritt put a distinct twist on Musk’s mindset throughout his presentation. “To Elon Musk, if he believes it, or simply thinks about it, it is true.”

In his concluding remarks, Porritt informed jurors their resolution will boil all the way down to their reply to 1 query: “Do the foundations apply to everybody, or can Elon Musk do no matter he desires and never face the results?”