AITwitter, Inc. filed this lawsuit in July 2022 in the Delaware Court of Chancery after Elon Musk attempted to back out of his agreement to acquire the company for approximately $44 billion — $54.20 per share. Musk had signed a merger agreement in April 2022 and then, less than three months later, purported to terminate the deal, citing what he claimed were material misrepresentations by Twitter about the number of spam and bot accounts on its platform. Twitter sought specific performance — a court order compelling Musk to complete the acquisition at the agreed price — rather than money damages.
Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick agreed to expedite the case to an October 2022 trial date, a timeline Musk vigorously resisted. The litigation moved rapidly through discovery, during which Musk sought extensive information about Twitter's bot-counting methodology and Twitter sought sanctions against Musk for alleged discovery misconduct. A whistleblower complaint from a former Twitter security executive, Peiter Zatko, injected additional complexity into the proceedings by raising questions about Twitter's internal security practices.
With trial imminent and the litigation going poorly for Musk, he reversed course in October 2022 and agreed to proceed with the original deal on its original terms. The parties jointly sought a stay of the litigation, and the case was voluntarily dismissed after the acquisition closed. Musk took Twitter private, subsequently rebranding the company and its platform as X. Several related proceedings, including a petition by PlainSite founder Aaron Greenspan seeking public access to sealed court materials, were also part of the docket.
AICyrus A. Parsa, founder of The AI Organization, filed this lawsuit in December 2019 in the Southern District of California against Google, Facebook, DeepMind, Alphabet, Neuralink, Tesla, and individual defendants including Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk. The complaint alleged that the defendants' development of artificial intelligence technology enabled human rights abuses against Falun Dafa practitioners, Uyghurs, Christians, Tibetans, and others in China and around the world, framing the AI companies as complicit in surveillance, torture, organ harvesting, and persecution.
Parsa filed an amended complaint in February 2020 adding additional claims. Judge Cathy Bencivengo issued an order to show cause in May 2020 why the case should not be dismissed, and on June 1, 2020 entered a dismissal without prejudice, noting that Parsa had filed the complaint but had not effected proper service on the defendants and the case could not proceed as filed.
AIThis consolidated stockholder derivative action, filed in September 2016 in the Delaware Court of Chancery, challenged Tesla Motors' $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity Corporation as a conflicted transaction that amounted to a bailout of a struggling company at Tesla shareholders' expense. The central allegation was that Elon Musk, who held a significant stake in both Tesla and SolarCity and whose cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive ran SolarCity, orchestrated the merger to rescue SolarCity from financial distress while using Tesla as the vehicle to do so. Plaintiffs alleged that Musk and the Tesla board members who approved the deal breached their fiduciary duties to Tesla shareholders.
The litigation proceeded through years of discovery and motion practice before proceeding to a ten-day trial before Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights III in July 2021. The trial featured extensive testimony and expert analysis on whether SolarCity was financially distressed at the time of the acquisition, whether the deal price was fair, and whether Tesla's board acted independently given Musk's influence over it. Key witnesses included financial experts debating the valuation of SolarCity and the terms of the transaction.
Vice Chancellor Slights issued his post-trial decision in April 2022, ruling that while Musk was a conflicted controlling stockholder, the acquisition was entirely fair to Tesla shareholders and judgment was entered in favor of the defendants. Plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court in May 2022.
AIPlainSite founder Aaron Greenspan filed this lawsuit in May 2020 in the Northern District of California against Omar Qazi, a prominent Tesla advocate known on social media as "WHAAAT," along with Qazi's company Smick Enterprises, Tesla, Inc., and Elon Musk. The complaint, which Greenspan amended four times over the course of the litigation, asserted a range of federal and state claims. Greenspan alleged that Qazi engaged in a systematic campaign of online harassment and stalking directed at Greenspan in retaliation for his critical reporting on Tesla; that Qazi infringed Greenspan's copyright by using excerpts from Greenspan's autobiography and photographs on social media; and that Tesla and Musk made material misrepresentations to investors in violation of federal securities laws.
Judge James Donato allowed Greenspan multiple opportunities to amend his complaint, but ultimately dismissed all federal claims with prejudice in May 2022. On the copyright claims, the court found that Qazi's use of Greenspan's material constituted fair use under the criticism and commentary doctrine. On the securities fraud claims, the court found that Greenspan had not adequately alleged the required elements. The court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law defamation and stalking claims, dismissing those without prejudice — leaving Greenspan free to pursue those claims in state court, which he did.
After judgment was entered, Greenspan filed a motion for relief from judgment under Rule 60(b), submitting what he characterized as newly discovered evidence of Tesla's alleged internal fraud, including internal spreadsheets and FOIA responses. The court denied that motion in June 2022, finding nothing in the new material warranted reconsideration. Qazi's request for attorneys' fees was also denied, with the parties bearing their own costs.
AITesla shareholder Richard Tornetta filed this derivative lawsuit in June 2018 in the Delaware Court of Chancery challenging the massive compensation package granted to Elon Musk by the Tesla board in January 2018. The plan consisted of 12 tranches of stock options — each representing 1% of Tesla's outstanding shares — that vested upon the achievement of paired market capitalization and operational milestones over a ten-year period. Tesla itself disclosed that the plan's estimated fair value was .6 billion, and analysts projected it could eventually be worth over billion if the company continued to grow. Tornetta alleged that Musk, as Tesla's controlling stockholder and chairman, had improperly influenced the compensation committee and the full board, and that the package was not the product of a fair, arm's-length process.
In January 2024, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick issued a landmark decision voiding the compensation package in its entirety. The court found that Musk was a controlling stockholder at the time the plan was approved, that the process by which it was negotiated and approved was deeply flawed and conflicted, and that the defendants had failed to demonstrate that the plan was entirely fair to Tesla shareholders. The decision drew international attention for its size and its implications for corporate governance of founder-controlled companies.
Following the ruling, Tesla's board put the compensation package to a shareholder ratification vote in June 2024, which passed with majority support. Proceedings continued in the Court of Chancery through late 2024 as the court considered whether the post-litigation shareholder vote could cure the defects identified in the January 2024 ruling.
AIThe Securities and Exchange Commission filed this enforcement action against Elon Musk in September 2018 in the Southern District of New York, arising from a tweet Musk posted on August 7, 2018 stating he was "considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." The SEC alleged the tweet was materially false and misleading — that Musk had not actually secured funding for a go-private transaction and had not had substantive discussions with any financing source — and that it caused significant disruption in Tesla's stock price, injuring investors who traded on the false information.
Musk and Tesla each settled with the SEC within days of the complaint being filed, without admitting or denying the allegations. Under the consent agreements, Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million in civil penalties, Musk agreed to step down as Tesla's chairman for at least three years, and Tesla agreed to implement controls requiring pre-approval of Musk's social media communications that could contain material information about the company. A related class action by investors proceeded separately in California federal court.
The SEC deposited the combined $40 million into a Fair Fund for distribution to harmed investors. After years of administrative proceedings to identify and pay eligible claimants, a plan of distribution was approved in March 2022. A total of $41.5 million was distributed to 3,350 payees in September 2023, with approximately 99% of the funds cashed. The remaining uncashed balance was returned to the SEC in November 2024, and the distribution agent was in the process of finalizing accounting to close the fund as of early 2025.
AIThe Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit filed this stockholder derivative action in June 2020 in the Delaware Court of Chancery on behalf of Tesla, Inc., alleging that the company's board of directors awarded themselves excessive and unfair compensation from 2017 through 2020. The complaint alleged that the stock option grants issued to Tesla's non-employee directors dwarfed median director compensation at other large-cap companies by more than 3,000%, and that the grants were not the product of a fair, arm's-length process because Elon Musk, as Tesla's controlling stockholder, dominated the compensation committee.
The case proceeded through extensive discovery, which was contentious — the plaintiff filed multiple motions to compel after defendants withheld documents, some of which were eventually produced only after being obtained first from third parties. Internal consulting materials from Aon, which had advised Tesla's board, were among the contested documents. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick presided over the case.
The litigation was still active as of January 2025, when the court held oral argument on a motion for summary judgment or dispositive ruling. The case is separate from but thematically related to the Tornetta v. Musk litigation challenging Musk's own compensation package.
AIMartin Eberhard, co-founder of Tesla Motors and its first CEO, filed this lawsuit against Elon Musk and Tesla Motors in May 2009 in San Mateo County Superior Court. Eberhard alleged that after he was pushed out of Tesla in 2007, Musk and the company launched a coordinated campaign to defame him by publicly blaming him for Tesla's early production delays and financial difficulties, spreading false narratives about his management of the company, and attempting to rewrite the company's origin story to diminish his role as a co-founder. The complaint asserted eleven causes of action including libel, slander, breach of contract, specific performance, unpaid wages, and conversion.
Eberhard had originally co-founded the company with Marc Tarpenning in 2003 and served as CEO through 2007, overseeing the development of the original Tesla Roadster. After his departure — which he alleged was effectively a forced ouster — Musk had assumed a more prominent public role and, Eberhard claimed, began making statements that falsely cast Eberhard as responsible for the company's technical and financial problems.
The parties reached a confidential settlement in September 2009, less than four months after the complaint was filed. As part of the resolution, both sides agreed to treat each other with respect and to acknowledge each other's contributions to Tesla's founding.
AIThis consolidated securities class action was filed in August 2018 in the Northern District of California arising from the same August 7, 2018 tweet by Elon Musk claiming he was "considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." Lead plaintiff investors alleged that Musk's tweet was materially false and misleading and caused Tesla's stock to trade at artificially inflated prices, injuring investors who purchased shares while the misrepresentation was in the market. The class period ran from the date of the tweet through August 17, 2018.
Unlike the SEC's parallel enforcement action, which settled quickly, the investor class action proceeded to a full trial. Judge Edward M. Chen oversaw the case, which went to trial in January 2023. The trial featured dueling expert testimony on market efficiency, loss causation, and the materiality of the alleged misrepresentation. Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel represented Musk and Tesla. The jury deliberated and returned a verdict in favor of Musk and Tesla, finding that the defendants had not made a false statement of material fact — effectively concluding that Musk had a reasonable basis for the "funding secured" claim at the time he made it.
AIVernon Unsworth, a British cave explorer who played a key role in rescuing 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand in July 2018, filed this defamation lawsuit in September 2018 in the Central District of California against Elon Musk. The case arose from a series of statements Musk made on Twitter calling Unsworth a "pedo guy" — an accusation of pedophilia — after Unsworth publicly criticized a miniature submarine Musk had offered to contribute to the rescue effort as a publicity stunt. Musk later sent an email to a reporter repeating the accusation and suggesting Unsworth was a pedophile who had moved to Thailand for nefarious purposes.
Unsworth argued the accusations were completely false and had caused him serious reputational harm. Musk contended the "pedo guy" comment was an off-the-cuff insult using slang, not a literal accusation of pedophilia, and that no reasonable person would have understood it as a statement of fact. The case went to trial in December 2019 before Judge Stephen Wilson in Los Angeles. After a three-day trial, the jury deliberated for under an hour before returning a verdict for Musk, concluding that his statement did not constitute actionable defamation. Musk's attorney Lin Wood, who had been retained by Unsworth, had an unusual public falling-out with his client after the verdict.
AIElon Musk, through counsel from Singer Cashman LLP and Tesla's in-house attorneys, filed this lawsuit in February 2023 in Alameda County Superior Court against Aaron Greenspan — the founder of PlainSite — and other defendants. The case arose from statements Greenspan had made about Musk and Tesla in connection with his ongoing investigation into the company's business practices and his public criticism of Musk. Greenspan had been a frequent and prominent critic of Tesla and Musk through PlainSite and on social media, publishing research that raised questions about Tesla's financial disclosures, production statistics, and Musk's public statements.
Musk's claims appear to have sounded in defamation or similar tort theories, asserting that Greenspan's statements were false and actionable. The case was notable for the same reason as Musk's earlier litigation against Vernon Unsworth — using civil litigation as a tool against critics. Greenspan, no stranger to litigation, had himself sued Musk and Tesla in a separate federal action (Greenspan v. Qazi et al.) that was dismissed in 2022. The case drew attention given Musk's use of Tesla's own legal department to prosecute what appeared to be a personal dispute with a journalist and researcher.
AIElon Musk, represented by Irell & Manella LLP's Morgan Chu, filed this breach of contract and charitable trust action in February 2024 in San Francisco Superior Court against OpenAI Inc., its CEO Samuel Altman, President Gregory Brockman, and numerous OpenAI corporate entities including OAI Corporation LLC, OpenAI GP LLC, OpenAI Holdings LLC, and others, before Judge Richard Ulmer. The complaint alleged that Musk had co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit dedicated to developing artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity, made substantial financial contributions to OpenAI on that basis, and that Altman and Brockman had secretly steered the organization toward a for-profit structure to enrich themselves and Microsoft — fundamentally betraying the charitable mission for which Musk had donated.
Musk alleged that OpenAI's 2019 'capped profit' restructuring and its deepening relationship with Microsoft, which invested $13 billion, constituted a breach of the founding agreement and fiduciary duties owed to Musk and to the public. All named OpenAI entities were personally served on March 1, 2024. The case attracted enormous public attention given Musk's prominence and the extraordinary growth of OpenAI into one of the world's most valuable AI companies.
AIThis is a California Court of Appeal proceeding in case number A162400 before the First Appellate District, Division One, in which Elon Musk is the appellant and Randeep Hothi is the plaintiff-respondent. The appeal is from a Superior Court ruling by Judge Julia Spain in Alameda County (Case No. RG20069852). Hothi, a Tesla short-seller and blogger known for tracking the company's delivery numbers, had obtained a ruling against Musk at the trial court level in a civil harassment restraining order matter.
Musk's attorney Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP applied for pro hac vice admission and filed Musk's opening brief on June 10, 2021, along with an eight-volume appendix. The appeal challenged the trial court's finding supporting the restraining order.
AIKarl Hansen, a former security employee at Tesla's Fremont factory, filed this whistleblower and employment retaliation lawsuit in July 2019 in the District of Nevada against Elon Musk, Tesla Motors Inc., Tesla Inc., and U.S. Securities Associates Inc. — the security contractor Tesla used at its facility — before Judge Larry Hicks. Hansen alleged that he reported suspected securities fraud and drug trafficking activities at Tesla to federal authorities, and that Tesla and Musk then retaliated against him in violation of the Dodd-Frank Act's whistleblower protection provisions.
After the district court ruled against Hansen, he appealed to the Ninth Circuit. On December 10, 2024, the Ninth Circuit issued a published opinion in case number 23-15296 affirming the district court. Hansen petitioned the Supreme Court for certiorari in petition No. 24-1109, which was denied on April 25, 2025. The Supreme Court's denial leaves the Ninth Circuit's decision as final.
AIAaron Greenspan, the founder of PlainSite.org, filed this lawsuit pro se in state court in 2024 against Elon Musk, Tesla Inc., X Corp., Jared Birchall (Musk's personal assistant and corporate representative), Omar Qazi (a Tesla promoter who ran the SMICK Enterprises social media account), and several of Musk's attorneys including Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel and Adam Cashman and Allison Huebert of Singer Cashman LLP. The case was removed to the Northern District of California and assigned to Judge Maxine Chesney. Greenspan alleged that Musk and his associates engaged in a coordinated harassment and defamation campaign against him, including directing Qazi to make false statements about Greenspan on social media.
Quinn Emanuel represented Tesla, Excession LLC, and Musk's revocable trust. Qazi appeared pro se. The district court ruled against Greenspan, and he filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit in March 2026 from Covina, California. Qazi filed an opposition to Greenspan's motion for extension of time in February 2026.
AIRandeep Hothi, a Tesla short-seller and blogger known for tracking Tesla vehicle deliveries and disputing the company's reported numbers, filed this civil harassment restraining order petition in August 2020 in Alameda County Superior Court (case RG20069852) against Elon Musk, represented by D. Gill Sperlein and Lawrence Fossi. Hothi alleged that Musk directed harassment against him after Hothi repeatedly attempted to document Tesla's factory operations.
Musk was represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP — lead counsel Alex Spiro (pro hac vice) and Michael Lifrak of the San Francisco office. Adam Cashman also appeared. A series of rulings in October-November 2020 addressed the merits of the anti-SLAPP and harassment claims. The trial court ruled in Musk's favor, and Hothi appealed (docket 13545138).
AIAaron Greenspan, founder of PlainSite and Think Computer Corporation, filed a pro se appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in July 2022, appealing a district court judgment in his underlying case against Omar Qazi, Smick Enterprises Inc., Elon Musk, and Tesla, Inc. (Civil Case No. 3:20-cv-03426-JD before Judge James Donato in the Northern District of California). Greenspan alleged, among other things, that the defendants had engaged in a harassment campaign and defamation against him.
The Ninth Circuit briefing process was contentious. Greenspan filed his opening brief in October 2022, Qazi and Musk/Tesla filed separate answering briefs in December 2022, and Greenspan filed a reply in April 2023. He subsequently filed multiple motions for judicial notice of various court records and PSLRA filings, which were opposed by Tesla and Musk and largely denied by the panel.
On April 4, 2024, a Ninth Circuit panel comprised of Judges Hurwitz, Johnstone, and Morris issued a memorandum disposition affirming the district court in all respects. The panel also denied Greenspan's motions to strike the answering briefs and denied sanctions. Greenspan petitioned for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc in May 2024, which the panel voted to deny on May 31, 2024.
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