Elon Musk's space transportation, satellite internet, and artificial intelligence (AI) company, Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +2.22%), went public last Friday. SpaceX, as it is better known, saw its stock soar 19% on the day, giving the company a $2.1 trillion market capitalization at the close of trading, making it the world's seventh-most-valuable public company.
The Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) maintains a series of indexes designed to track different areas of the stock market, which companies like Vanguard use as a foundation for their exchange-traded funds (ETFs). CRSP has a fast-track rule that allows it to add large companies to its indexes five trading days after their initial public offering (IPO), which means SpaceX could be in several different ETFs starting this Friday, June 19.
However, most of CRSP's indexes use a float-adjusted market cap methodology, which means they only consider the portion of a given company that actually trades publicly. Since SpaceX listed less than 5% of its shares, its float-adjusted market cap is only around $100 billion, so the company will have a relatively small representation in most CRSP indexes.
Nevertheless, here are two Vanguard ETFs that could own SpaceX before the end of this week.
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1. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF
The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI +0.44%) tracks the CRSP U.S. Total Market Index, which comprises all 3,498 companies listed on American exchanges. As a result, it's highly diversified with exposure to multitrillion-dollar giants and small-cap companies alike.
Below are the top five holdings in this Vanguard ETF, and their individual weightings.
|
Stock |
Vanguard ETF Portfolio Weighting |
|---|---|
|
1. Nvidia |
6.63% |
|
2. Alphabet |
5.77% |
|
3. Apple |
5.74% |
|
4. Microsoft |
4.36% |
|
5. Amazon |
3.69% |
Data source: Vanguard. Portfolio weightings are accurate as of April 30, 2026, and are subject to change.
Since SpaceX is a $2.1 trillion company, it would normally slot closely behind Amazon, which is worth around $2.6 trillion. But because of the float-adjusted market cap methodology I explained earlier, SpaceX is likely to have a weighting of just 0.12% (according to an estimate by Morningstar) when it enters the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF.
NYSEMKT: VTI
Key Data Points
Therefore, SpaceX won't have much influence on this ETF's performance. That might be disappointing for investors who think the stock has significant upside, but history suggests that freshly listed stocks tend to experience elevated volatility, so maybe a small weighting isn't a bad thing.
As a result, this ETF might be a good option for investors seeking a bit of exposure to SpaceX while remaining highly diversified.
2. The Vanguard Growth ETF
The Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG +0.38%) tracks the CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index, which exclusively invests in the top 85% of growth stocks across the entire market. In other words, if we ranked all 3,498 stocks in the CRSP U.S. Total Market Index from largest to smallest, the Large Cap Growth Index would start at the top of the list and buy every growth stock until it captured 85% of its total value.
However, "growth" is the key word. This index disregards so-called value stocks, so you won't find companies like Coca-Cola or Johnson & Johnson here, because their fastest growing years are behind them. They focus on profitability and returning money to shareholders, and you can find such stocks in the CRSP U.S. Large Cap Value Index instead.
The Vanguard Growth ETF holds just 154 stocks. Its top five positions are almost exactly the same as the top five positions in the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, except with significantly higher weightings.
|
Stock |
Vanguard ETF Portfolio Weighting |
|---|---|
|
1. Nvidia |
13.33% |
|
2. Alphabet |
11.60% |
|
3. Apple |
11.53% |
|
4. Microsoft |
8.76% |
|
5. Broadcom |
5.19% |
Data source: Vanguard. Portfolio weightings are accurate as of April 30, 2026, and are subject to change.
The CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index also uses a float-adjusted market cap methodology, so SpaceX is likely to have a small weighting of under 0.2% in the Vanguard Growth ETF when it's included on Friday.
NYSEMKT: VUG
Key Data Points
However, this Vanguard ETF might be suitable for investors who want to own SpaceX alongside other growth stocks. The fund has delivered a compound annual return of 18.3% over the last 10 years, which is well above the average annual return of 15.1% of the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF over the same period. However, it can also experience more volatility during broader market corrections, which is something to keep in mind.
