Nasdaq’s quarterly rebalance is bringing five new names into its premier index, headlined by space technology firm Rocket Lab USA (RKLB) alongside four AI-linked companies.
Index provider Nasdaq Global Indexes announced late Thursday that Rocket Lab, connectivity chip maker Astera Labs, cloud-computing companies CoreWeave and Nebius, and chip-equipment maker Teradyne will join the Nasdaq 100 before the open on June 22.
The five additions require an equal number of departures, with Charter Communications, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Insmed, Verisk Analytics, and Zscaler all removed from the index.
The reshuffling comes as SpaceX prepares to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday following a historic initial public offering that raised $75 billion.
SpaceX’s IPO is set to become the largest in history, easily surpassing Saudi Aramco’s $29.4 billion listing in 2019 and placing the company’s opening valuation at around $1.75 trillion.
Nasdaq moved in late March to pave the way for fast-tracking SpaceX into the Nasdaq 100, its most closely watched index, with rule changes allowing entry after just 15 trading days of trading.
The S&P 500 was seen as a possible destination for SpaceX as well, but S&P Dow Jones Indices last week said it decided against policy changes that would have allowed SpaceX and other megacap tech companies into the benchmark index earlier than what is customary.
Both the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 are coveted benchmarks for publicly traded companies, as inclusion exposes shares to a broad range of investors, including passive funds and actively managed funds with investment limitations.
Nasdaq says more than 200 investment products with a combined $800 billion-plus in assets track the Nasdaq 100, underscoring the financial significance of any index addition or removal.
CoreWeave and Nebius have been standout performers in the AI cloud computing space in 2026, with CoreWeave delivering a year-to-date return of over 15% and Nebius surging more than 30%.
Both companies specialize in GPU-driven cloud infrastructure tailored for AI workloads, competing directly with cloud giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.
Adding a massive company like SpaceX, which is still unprofitable and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, could increase the overall risk profile of tracking the Nasdaq 100.
