Nasdaq-100 Quarterly Rebalancing Announced: Rocket Lab and 4 Other Companies to Be Added
N.R. Finch
The Nasdaq 100 will add five AI and space companies in its June rebalance, effective June 22. The reshuffle tilts the index further toward AI infrastructure and the space economy, forcing passive funds to follow.
Who's in and who's out?
Five additions: Astera Labs (connectivity chip maker), CoreWeave and Nebius Group (cloud computing), Rocket Lab (launch and space), and Teradyne (chip-testing equipment).
Five removals: Charter Communications, Cognizant, Insmed, Verisk Analytics, and Zscaler.
This means → the Nasdaq 100's "top-100 non-financials" roster now leans harder into AI infrastructure — four of the five newcomers sit directly on the AI compute supply chain.
What does this mean for investors?
The Nasdaq 100 tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq. A large pool of ETFs and passive funds is benchmarked to it.
The changes take effect before the open on Monday, June 22; tracking funds must rebalance by then.
In plain terms = regardless of what a fund manager thinks of these stocks, any fund labeled "Nasdaq 100 tracker" must buy the new names and sell the departures.
What do the newcomers have in common?
MarketWatch's summary: this round is essentially "1 space company + 4 AI companies" entering together.
Rocket Lab is the sole space name; the other four span different nodes of the AI compute chain — connectivity chips, cloud capacity, and testing gear.
This reflects a broader shift in Nasdaq 100 composition: from software and internet platforms toward AI physical infrastructure.
SpaceX is about to list — did Nasdaq clear the runway?
SpaceX, ticker SPCX, is set to begin trading on Nasdaq this Friday.
Nasdaq revised its rules in late March: new listings typically wait months for index eligibility, but under the updated policy SpaceX could qualify as soon as 15 trading days after listing.
This means → Nasdaq is actively fast-tracking SpaceX's path into the index — a historically rare move.
Why didn't the S&P 500 follow suit?
S&P Dow Jones Indices decided last week not to amend its policy — it will not relax financial requirements or accelerate inclusion for SpaceX or other mega-cap tech newcomers.
In plain terms = the two flagship indices took opposite paths: Nasdaq rewrote the rules to welcome SpaceX; the S&P 500 stuck with the existing playbook.
This signals an open policy split between index providers on whether to make exceptions for super-unicorns.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.