The S&P 500 is Wall Street’s most widely followed benchmark. Passive S&P 500 index funds with trillions of dollars in assets would have been forced to buy up SpaceX shares had rules been changed to admit it to the index.
“It speaks highly of the credibility of S&P Dow Jones Indices to be rules-based and make sure there’s profitability before entrance to the index,” 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.”
This misses the most important quote - what the rule actually is.
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 the rules S&P left unchanged.
SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.94 billion in 2025, even as revenue rose 33% to $18.67 billion
Yup. You want to speculate on SpaceX, then no one is stopping you. You may even make a shitload of money if you do it right (based on recent valuations I’m not so sure, though), but maximizing short term capital gains based on vibes is absolutely not what the S&P 500 is used for.
If SpaceX is actually consistently profitable, they’ll be in the index in one year. Is what it is.
This misses the most important quote - what the rule actually is.
Which is a completely reasonable rule.
Yup. You want to speculate on SpaceX, then no one is stopping you. You may even make a shitload of money if you do it right (based on recent valuations I’m not so sure, though), but maximizing short term capital gains based on vibes is absolutely not what the S&P 500 is used for.
If SpaceX is actually consistently profitable, they’ll be in the index in one year. Is what it is.