It was a Tuesday morning when the email landed in my inbox: a press release from a private trading platform, breathlessly announcing that SpaceX shares would soon be available to 'accredited investors'. I read it twice. Then I thought of the thousands of people who, in the past year, have asked me the same question: 'How do I get a piece of Elon Musk's rocket company?'
The answer, until now, has been: you don't. Not unless you're a venture capitalist with a seven-figure cheque book, or an employee willing to sit on unvested options. But the landscape is shifting. The Financial Conduct Authority is reportedly examining whether retail investors should be allowed to buy stakes in companies like SpaceX. The implications are enormous. Not just for space tourism, but for the very idea of who gets to own the future.
For decades, investing in private companies was the preserve of the wealthy. It was a club with a velvet rope. Then came crowdfunding, and the rise of secondary markets where accredited investors could trade pre-IPO shares. Now, the FCA is considering a broader relaxation. The logic is seductive: why should only the rich get to bet on the next SpaceX, the next Uber, the next OpenAI? Democratise access, and you democratise wealth creation.
But here's the human cost. We have seen this movie before. When tech companies go public, the early investors cash out. But the retail investors who buy at the IPO often find themselves holding the bag. Remember Uber, which debuted at $45 and now trades at around $30? Or WeWork, which collapsed into a soup of losses? The narrative of 'democratisation' can be a siren song, luring ordinary people into high-risk, illiquid assets.
On the street, the mood is different. I spoke to a young woman in a coffee shop near London Bridge. She runs a small bakery and has been saving for two years. 'I want to invest in things I believe in,' she said. 'SpaceX is inspiring. But I don't know what I'm doing.' She is not alone. The FCA's probe is about protection as much as access. How do you explain a valuation based on Elon's tweets? How do you explain that your shares cannot be sold until a liquidity event that may never come?
There is a cultural shift happening. The pandemic made people rethink their relationship with money. They want their savings to mean something, to be part of a story. But stories are dangerous. They can obscure risk. The regulators walk a tightrope: one side is paternalism, the other is a casino.
I think of the early days of the internet, when anyone could buy shares in Pets.com. The democratisation of stock trading was hailed as a revolution. Then the bubble burst. We are older now, but not necessarily wiser. The FCA is right to ask questions. Because the real question is not whether you can buy SpaceX shares, but whether you should. And that answer depends on how much risk you can stomach, and how much you trust the narrative.
For now, the club remains exclusive. But the velvet rope is fraying. And as I watch the queue of ordinary investors, eyes fixed on the stars, I wonder: are we taking a giant leap, or a small step towards a new kind of inequality? The answer, I suspect, will come from the regulators. But it should also come from us. After all, the future belongs to everyone. The question is who gets to own it.
