NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday rejected billionaire Elon Musk's bid to dismiss a lawsuit claiming he had defrauded former Twitter shareholders by waiting too long to disclose his initial investment in the social media company, now known as X.

Without ruling on the case's merits, U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan said the plaintiffs adequately pleaded that Musk intended to commit fraud through an improper regulatory filing, misleading tweets about Twitter's future, and a strategy to "silently" build up his Twitter stake.

Carter dismissed some other claims.