SpaceX has barred investors from Hong Kong and mainland China from its upcoming IPO, highlighting growing geopolitical sensitivities in global financial markets. This move comes despite Chinese investors' apparent willingness to engage in speculative investments.

Billionaire Elon Musk’s AI and aerospace giant SpaceX has banned investors from Hong Kong and mainland China from buying its shares as it goes public on Friday – a rarely seen restriction that shows just how geopolitically sensitive the world’s tangled financial markets have grown. But Chinese investors seem all too willing to make risky investments in cryptocurrencies allegedly backed by US companies to avoid letting the initial public offering (IPO) of the century pass them by.