Commentators on Popehats article with more experience than me in Cali defamation law have also pointed out that California has a "totality of the circumstances" analysis of defamation, meaning that all of Musk's statements would be evaluated together rather than separately.

And to the dead comment below: 8 figures is simply $10,000,000 or more, which is a fair amount for a series of defamatory statements made to a worldwide audience during a time of significant publicity. Any apology Elon makes would have far smaller of an audience, meaning that if there is a large possibility that people heard and believed the original statements but never heard Elon's apology. Also, Popehat is a well-established legal commentator on the field of First Amendment and IP law that is frequently cited on HN. Torts/defamation is a little out of his bailiwick but his analysis is relevant to this HN discussion.