SpaceX has been denied a fast track into the S&P 500 when the rocket and satellite company goes public, in a ruling that cuts off quick access to one of the biggest pools of Wall Street money.
S&P Dow Jones Indices said Thursday it would maintain eligibility requirements for its benchmark following months of consultation with participants — closing the door on fast-track entry for Elon Musk’s company.
The decision will also affect the expected IPOs of AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI.
The S&P 500 is a list of the 500 most important publicly traded companies in America — including Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia.
Millions of everyday investors, pension funds and retirement accounts put their money into funds that automatically buy every stock on that list — mounting to trillions of dollars in so-called “passive funds.”
Getting added to the S&P 500 means a flood of automatic buying that can push a company’s stock price significantly higher.
The organization announced it will keep a rule requiring newly public companies to wait 12 months before they can be considered for inclusion — and will not make exceptions based on a company’s size.
The rule — called a “seasoning period” — exists to make sure a company has been publicly traded long enough for investors to get a reliable sense of what it’s actually worth, rather than buying in a frenzy on day one.
In another setback for SpaceX, according to current rules, the company will stay off the list until it turns a profit, regardless of how long it has been trading.
According to its IPO filing, SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.94 billion in 2025. It also posted a loss in the first quarter of this year.
But in one boost for SpaceX, passive funds tracking the Nasdaq 100 — a rival index — will be compelled to buy SpaceX shares sooner.
Nasdaq recently introduced a fast-entry mechanism that allows new listings with large enough market values to join the index just 15 trading days after an IPO.
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