Elon Musk found not guilty of fraud over Tesla tweet

Tesla founder Elon Musk has been cleared of wrongdoing for a tweet in which he said he had "funding secured" to take the electric carmaker private.

Mr Musk faced a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Tesla shareholders who argued he misled them with his posts in August 2018, according to BBC.

The proposed $72 billion (60 billion pounds) buyout never materialised.

If the San Francisco jury had found Mr Musk liable he could have been ordered to pay billions of dollars in damages.

It took the nine jurors less than two hours to reach their verdict on February 3 afternoon.

Mr Musk - who had wanted the trial moved to Texas, where Tesla is based, arguing he could not get a fair trial in San Francisco - welcomed the outcome.

Taking to Twitter, the social media platform he bought for $44 billion last October, he posted: "Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed!

"I am deeply appreciative of the jury's unanimous finding of innocence in the Tesla 420 take-private case."