SAN FRANCISCO, California: Elon Musk has been found liable by a U.S. federal jury for defrauding Twitter shareholders during his US$44 billion takeover of the company in 2022, in a closely watched civil trial.

The jury in San Francisco concluded that Musk misled investors with statements about the number of fake and spam accounts on Twitter, claims that shareholders argued were intended to drive down the company's stock price to renegotiate or exit the deal.

Damages have yet to be determined, but Francis Bottini, a lawyer representing the shareholders, said they could total about $2.5 billion.

"Musk's status as the world's richest man is not a free pass," Bottini said in a statement. "If you're able to move markets with your tweets, you're responsible for the harm you cause to investors."

Musk's legal team signalled plans to challenge the verdict.

In a joint statement, Musk's lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan called the outcome "a bump in the road. And we look forward to vindication on appeal."

The trial began on March 2, with jurors starting deliberations earlier this week.

The case focused on three public statements Musk made shortly after agreeing in April 2022 to acquire Twitter, in which he questioned the extent of bot activity on the platform. Jurors found him liable for two of those statements.

One of the statements said the deal was "temporarily on hold" pending confirmation that bots accounted for less than 5 percent of users. Another claimed the proportion of bots could be "much" higher than 20 percent, and that the acquisition could not proceed unless Twitter's leadership proved the figure was below 5 percent.

However, the jury rejected a broader claim that Musk had engaged in an overall scheme to defraud investors.

Musk's lawyer, Michael Lifrak, argued during the trial that his concerns about bots were genuine and that raising those issues publicly did not constitute fraud.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of investors who said they sold Twitter shares at artificially depressed prices between May 13 and October 4, 2022, a period during which Musk's comments were made.

Musk ultimately completed the acquisition in October 2022 and later rebranded the platform as X.

The case adds to a series of high-profile legal battles involving Musk and shareholder claims. In 2023, he successfully defended himself in a lawsuit over his 2018 statement that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private. He also prevailed in litigation in Delaware over his compensation package at the electric-vehicle maker.

Separately, Musk is in discussions to settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that accuses him of failing to disclose his initial purchases of Twitter shares in a timely manner in 2022.

More recently, his companies have continued to expand. In February, SpaceX acquired its artificial intelligence venture xAI, which houses X, in a deal that created what was described as the world's most valuable private company at the time, with an estimated valuation of about $1.25 trillion.