SpaceX lists on June 12 at a $1.75 trillion valuation. It’s the largest IPO in history. But the more interesting story now.
All three major index providers changed their rules this year to let SpaceX in faster.
- Nasdaq cut its inclusion window from 90 trading days to 15.
- FTSE Russell cut theirs to 5 days.
- S&P 500 is proposing to waive the profitability rule it has held since 2002, and halve the 12 month listing requirement.
SpaceX is loss making on an accounting basis and is only offering 3-5% of its shares to the public. Under the old rules it would not qualify for any of these indices.
Over $30 trillion in passive money has no choice but to buy SpaceX at whatever price it is trading at on inclusion day, Bloomberg estimates S&P 500 funds alone absorb 19% of the float, Russell and Nasdaq funds another 24%.
All three benchmarks are now structured to buy SpaceX at IPO pricing. Will be interesting to see where the valuation settles by end of 2026.