“Going public sooner than that would be very painful,” Musk said in a tweet.

“Will do my best to give long-term Tesla shareholders preference.”

He was responding to a question on Twitter, where a user asked: “Any thoughts on Starlink IPO we would love to invest in the future. Any thoughts on first dibs for Tesla retail investors?”

Last year, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell floated the idea of spinning off Starlink for an initial public offering.

Starlink, a planned network of tens of thousands of satellites in low-earth orbit, aims to offer fast internet speeds globally.

Musk had said earlier that Starlink, currently based in Redmond, Washington, will be a crucial source of funding for his broader plans like developing the Starship rocket to fly paying customers to the moon and eventually trying to colonise Mars.