SpaceX stock down by 16%: Will your mutual fund investments take a hit?

SpaceX is heading for a fourth day of losses as investors grow worried about the company amid a broader sell-off in technology stocks. The stock fell about 3% to $150 in pre-market trading, putting it on track to slip below $2 trillion in market capitalization.

After a record $75 billion IPO last week and an initial rally in the stock, investor sentiment has started to weaken. Concerns are rising that enthusiasm around AI-related investments may have gone too far.

In total, SpaceX has shed more than $600 billion in value after falling for three straight sessions. Monday’s 16% plunge in the stock erased about $400 billion, marking the second-largest one-day loss on record. Only Nvidia Corp.’s roughly $590 billion plunge that happened last year is bigger.

Indian retail investors cannot directly buy SpaceX shares. Their exposure to the such stocks is largely limited to mutual funds.

If you're wondering whether your mutual fund portfolio has any exposure to SpaceX—and whether decline in the stock prices could affect your investments—here's a closer look at it.

With SpaceX will soon be a part of the Nasdaq-100, index funds and ETFs that track the benchmark are required to hold the company's shares. This means investors in Nasdaq-100 index funds will have indirect exposure to SpaceX, alongside some of the world's largest technology companies.

The Nasdaq-100 comprises some of the world's largest technology and growth-oriented companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta.

A company doesn’t enter an index as soon as it lists on a stock exchange. Index providers have rules to determine when a company can be added and how large its position will be.

However, Nasdaq has changed the rules for its Nasdaq-100 index, making it easier for companies like SpaceX to be added.

Earlier, a company needed to have at least 10% of its shares available for public trading to qualify. Nasdaq has now removed this rule and will instead look at the company's total value, including both listed and unlisted shares. Nasdaq has also reduced the waiting period for new companies. A stock can now join the index after just 15 trading days.

This means that if SpaceX could be added to the Nasdaq-100 much faster. As a result, investors in Nasdaq-100 index funds could get exposure to SpaceX within a few weeks.

A stock fall impacts Net Asset Value (NAV) of a NASDAQ 100 Index in proportion to its weight.

For example, Apple accounts for roughly 7% to 11% of the Nasdaq-100, depending on the index's weighting methodology. As a result, a sharp fall in Apple's share price can have a noticeable effect (though not significant) on the performance of Nasdaq-100 index funds. SpaceX, on the other hand, will carry a even smaller weight of around 0.53% to 0.6% in the index.

This means that even a significant decline in SpaceX shares is likely to have only a marginal impact on investors holding Nasdaq-100 index funds.

Sanchari Ghosh is an Assistant Editor at Mint with over 12 years of experience in journalism, specialising in personal finance, DLT & DeFi, geopolitics and foreign policy, with a particular emphasis on how these areas intersect. <br> She writes extensively about how money works in everyday life—helping readers navigate personal finance decisions. <br> As AI reshapes investing behaviour, capital is increasingly flowing into decentralized ecosystems, redefining how assets are managed, traded, and valued. She focuses on explaining how money flows within frameworks like Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), DeFi protocols, and crypto markets—while also exploring what the future of money could look like in a trustless, programmable financial world. <br> She also focuses on immigration-related issues, simplifying complex topics around visas, passports, overseas financial planning, and the many practical challenges Indians face while moving or living abroad. <br> Alongside personal finance, Sanchari has a strong understanding of international politics, contemporary and historical conflicts, and global state decisions. She closely tracks how geopolitical developments influence economies, markets, and individual financial choices, bringing together finance and global affairs in her reporting. <br> She began her career as a desk editor, which gave her a strong foundation in news writing. Over time, her interest naturally shifted toward personal finance. Before joining Mint in 2020, she worked DNA, The Times of India, Outlook Money, BloombergQuint, and ETMoney. At Mint, she got an opportunity to expand her coverage to include immigration and geopolitical developments while continuing to closely follow personal finance trends and market movements.As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour, and fairness. <br> She is an English Major and her work took her across cities including Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune. Living independently from an early age gave her firsthand experience in managing life and money on her own. This practical exposure sparked her strong interest in personal finance. <br> Outside the newsroom, Sanchari is a sports enthusiast who regularly plays lawn tennis and squash. In her younger years, she was also a national-level badminton player.