On April 29, 2026, Elon Musk appeared in court in a federal court in Oakland, California, to attend the trial of a lawsuit regarding commercial conversion of OpenAI.
Manuel Orbegoso | Reuters
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, alleging that he violated securities laws in advance of his acquisition of Twitter.
A Monday filing signed by the SEC and lawyers representing Musk said Musk’s revocable trust will pay the commission a $1.5 million civil penalty as part of the settlement. The settlement still needs approval from the judge in charge of the case.
Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, said the outcome vindicated his client, saying in a statement: “The trust company has agreed to pay a small penalty for each late filing.”
The SEC did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, acquired Twitter in a leveraged buyout in late 2022 for $44 billion. Musk later changed the company’s name to X, which later merged with his artificial intelligence company xAI, and then with SpaceX earlier this year. According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth is approximately $790 billion.
Before Musk bought Twitter, he had a more than 5% stake in the publicly traded company. At this level, Musk would be required to disclose his holdings to the public within 10 calendar days of reaching the 5% threshold. However, Musk was late in filing the disclosure.
The SEC said in its original complaint that Musk’s failure to disclose his stock holdings allowed him to buy stock at “artificially low prices” and put other investors at a disadvantage. In a court filing last month, the SEC said it was “in discussions with Musk regarding a potential resolution” of the issue.
In a separate class action trial, a jury in California federal court found in March that Musk had misled Twitter investors in the run-up to acquiring Twitter. Musk’s lawyer said after the verdict that he planned to appeal.
The agreement disclosed Monday follows a prior settlement between regulators and Mr. Musk in 2018. tesla And the CEO halted efforts to take the automaker public. Musk and Tesla each had to pay a $20 million fine, and Musk had to temporarily relinquish his position as chairman of the board. A revised consent decree was signed the following year.
After the agreement, Musk reiterated that he had no respect for the SEC.
Meanwhile, Musk is currently embroiled in a separate legal battle with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The Musk v. Altman trial began last week in federal court in Oakland, California, with Musk on the stand Tuesday through Thursday. In 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI, accusing them of reneging on their promise to keep the Artificial Intelligence Institute as a nonprofit organization.
WATCH: Musk hits back at OpenAI lawyer
