When Chief Executive Officer of Tesla Elon Musk tweeted that he was considering a delisting of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla at USD 420 per share, it wasn’t meant as a joke.

So says Musk during Monday’s proceedings, which saw him once again taking the stand.

The case concerns a couple of Musk’s tweets from 2018. Aside from considering a delisting, Musk also wrote that financing was ”secured” and investor support was confirmed.

The tweet triggered share price volatility on the EV maker’s equity, which ended up costing shareholders a significant sum of money and prompted several investors to file a class-action lawsuit.

Nicholas Porritt, legal council representing these investors, has claimed throughout the trial that Musk chose USD 420 ”as a joke”.

However, Musk rejects this claim:

”420 was not chosen because of a joke. It was chosen because there was a 20% premium over the stock price,” he tells the jurors. 

The billionaire, who also took the stand last week, considers it ”outrageous” that he stands accused of fraud.

From the courthouse in San Francisco he says that Saudi-Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) backed his ambitions to delist the automaker.

However, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan subsequently backpedaled, says Musk and adds that even without the Saudi fund he would still have enough money to take Tesla private.

Musk claims that he could have used his personal wealth, including his shares in SpaceX, which he also spearheads.

Last year he bought Twitter at a price of USD 44bn.

Since then, he has been embroiled in numerous controversies over his handling of the company.

One of his controversial decisions was to lay off approximately half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees.