#Elon Musk says taking Tesla private would be ‘impossible’

It is “impossible” for Elon Musk to turn Tesla private — despite the CEO’s belief that ridding the electric carmaker of its duties as a public company would help accelerate innovation, he said Christmas Eve.

“Engineering, design & general company operations absorb vast majority of my mind & are the fundamental limitation on doing more,” Musk tweeted in response to a user who was speculating on how the tech tycoon could best allocate his time. “Tesla public company duties are a much bigger factor, but going private is impossible now (sigh).”

Tesla, which was added to the benchmark S&P 500 index this week, has seen its shares surge 670 percent since the beginning of the year. With its nearly $630 billion market cap, Tesla would be far and away the biggest acquisition of all time.

Musk had famously gotten into hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission after sending an Aug. 7, 2018, tweet that said he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”

The pot joke landed him a $20 million fine and resulted in him being forced to step down from his role as Tesla’s chairman.

Musk on Thursday also tweeted that Starlink — the internet beaming satellite business within SpaceX — is his next venture that is likely to IPO, saying that it would go public “once revenue growth is reasonably predictable.”