Two of the most valuable companies in history are about to go public, and because of their sheer size, they may fundamentally alter what sits inside millions of Americans’ retirement accounts. With SpaceX’s IPO also sparking index providers to change the rules on how stocks are added to major stock market indexes (like Nasdaq or the S&P 500), you may soon feel the effects of the IPO much faster than you would have otherwise.
Index funds are usually the backbone of most 401(k)s, and because they’re obligated to buy whatever is in the index, changing the rules may be the mechanism that forces one’s exposure to a new IPO, such as SpaceX’s, and eventually Anthropic’s. But simply because SpaceX and Anthropic are so enormous at their debut (SpaceX at $1.77 trillion as of Wednesday and Anthropic expected at nearly $1 trillion), index providers can’t necessarily leave them out. So they’ve shortened or even eliminated the seasoning period, meaning your 401(K) will reflect their presence in the stock market that much sooner.
