'I Don't Have A Lot Of Cash:' Day Two Of Elon Musk's Defamation Trial

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk took to the stand on Wednesday in day two of the defamation trial facing him in a Los Angeles court.

What Happened

The billionaire entrepreneur continued his testimony from Tuesday in the case filed against him by a U.K. caver, whom Musk had called a “pedo guy” on Twitter.

The Tesla CEO reiterated his stance from Tuesday that he didn’t mean to imply that Unsworth was a peadophile and that it was, in fact, Unsworth who started the conflict by launching an “unprovoked attack,” Reuters reported. 

The caver Vernon Unsworth had criticized Musk’s efforts to rescue children stuck in a cave in Thailand by sending a submarine as a “PR Stunt.”

Unsworth, who was directly involved in the rescue, asked Musk to “stick his submarines where it hurts.”

Musk responded with a series of disparaging tweets targeted at Unsworth, resulting in the defamation lawsuit.

A Billionaire With No Cash

Towards the end of the testimony, Unsworth’s attorney L. Lin Wood asked Musk what he thought was his net worth, Reuters reported.

Musk said that he didn’t know his precise net worth, suggesting that $20 billion would be near the estimate of the total value of his Tesla and SpaceX stocks.

“People think I have a lot of cash. I actually don’t,” Musk said, according to Reuters. 

Forbes puts Musk’s net worth at $23.6 billion but agrees that very little of his wealth is liquid.

Wood also asked Musk if he believes his tweets impact Tesla’s shares, CNBC reported. Musk didn’t answer the question directly, but said that he received “concerned notes from the shareholders.”

Price Action

Tesla’s shares closed 0.94% lower at $333.03 on Wednesday but were up 0.075% in after-hours trading.