Is the business secretary, Peter Kyle, suffering from SpaceX fever? It must be something of that sort because his launch this week of a “concierge service” to allow fast-growing companies to navigate Whitehall bureaucracy came with an extraordinary pitch. The new service is “part of his [Kyle’s] quest to nurture the UK’s first trillion-dollar firm”, said the official announcement.
One trillion dollars is about £750bn so Kyle’s quest is not a small undertaking when you see that the largest company on the London Stock Exchange, HSBC, is worth £235bn. Arm Holdings, the fast-growing UK chip designer that is listed in the US (sadly), is worth £280bn. So Kyle is saying he thinks he can “nurture” something much bigger.