SpaceX signage outside the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. facility in Hawthorne, California, on June 3, 2026.
Michael Yanow | Nurphoto | Getty Images
S&P Globalsaid on Thursday it was not changing the requirements forentryinto its major indices, dealing a setback toElon Musk’sSpaceXby effectively ruling out a swiftentryfor the world’s biggest-ever IPO into thebenchmarkS&P 500index.
Musk has rewritten the IPO playbook for SpaceXin many waysfromplanning to give retail investors a bigger role in allocations to pushing forearlyindexinclusion, and structuring governance to preserve strong founder control.
The company is raising $75 billion and targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation that would place it among the top 10 most valuable U.S.-listed firms, even as only a fraction of its shares are available for trading.
But S&P said “exceptions to the financial viability, seasoning, and IWF (investable weight factor) requirements should not be granted solely based on market capitalization”.
To be included in the S&P 500, a company must be profitable under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in its most recent quarter as well as for the sum of its most recent four quarters, according to one of therulesS&P left unchanged.
SpaceXposted a net loss of $4.94 billion in 2025, even as revenue rose 33% to $18.67 billion.
Investor consultations
S&P had consulted with investors about shortening the time a megacap company must be publicly listed before joining itsindexes, waiving minimum float requirements and removing its profitability requirement.
The S&P 500 is Wall Street’s most widely followedbenchmark. Passive S&P 500indexfunds with trillions of dollars in assets would have been forced to buy upSpaceXshares hadrulesbeen changed to admit it to theindex.
“It speaks highly of the credibility of S&P Dow Jones Indices to berules-based and make sure there’s profitability before entrance to theindex,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.
“Making exceptions because companies are so large and have been private so long yet are still not profitable, didn’t make a great deal of sense.”
Nasdaq hasalready made changesthat will make it easier forSpaceX, Anthropic and other newly listed megacaps to join its Nasdaq 100 index.
Nasdaq 100indexfunds will be forced to buy a sizeable portion of publicly availableSpaceXshares when the company joins thatindex.
Exchange operators have ramped up efforts to boost initial public listings as richly valued technology firms such asSpaceXand AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI edge closer topublic offerings, amid growing concerns over a steady decline in the number of U.S.-listed companies.
S&P Global said it would modifyentryrulesfor its broader S&P Total MarketIndexand Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock MarketIndex, creating a pathway forSpaceXto join those less widely followedindexes.
SpaceXhas also already become eligible for inclusion in both the Russell U.S. EquityIndexes and the FTSE Global EquityIndexSeries under the newly announced fast-entryrulesfromtheindexprovider FTSE Russell.
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