Rocket Lab and Intuitive Machines Compared as Better Space Stock

Baron Capital founder and CEO Ron Baron said he will publicly support whatever Elon Musk decides about a potential merger between Tesla and SpaceX, telling CNBC, "Whatever you decide is better is what I'm going to support." Baron, who began investing in Tesla in 2014 and SpaceX in 2017, said Baron Capital now holds around $25 billion in SpaceX stock and $5 billion in Tesla stock, and that the early bets have generated roughly $30 billion in profits for clients out of $71 billion in lifetime profits. He said he privately shared with Musk the reasons he considers a merger both a good idea and a bad idea, but declined to elaborate. Talk of a merger has heated up again after Musk's comments on the All-In Podcast live summit, where he was interviewed virtually alongside SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. Separately, Baron called SpaceX's Starlink unit one of the most undervalued assets, predicting it could reach $1 trillion in revenue within 10 years, $700 billion to $800 billion in EBITDA, a $14 trillion to $15 trillion valuation, and 300 million customers, up from around 15 million today.

SpaceX's weighting in the Nasdaq 100 Index will more than double to 2.82% when the benchmark's quarterly rebalance takes effect on Monday, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the index provider. The adjustment, calculated using Friday's closing prices, confirms a provisional weighting that will begin to align the space and satellite giant's influence in the index with its massive market valuation. SpaceX, which made its public debut in July, currently holds a relatively small 1.28% weighting in the gauge, as most of its shares were locked up following its listing, constraining its index representation even after Nasdaq revised its rules to allow newly listed mega-cap companies to enter the index sooner without requiring a 10% free-float minimum. The rebalance helps close an unusual disparity: while SpaceX ranks as the seventh-largest company in the Nasdaq 100 with a market capitalization exceeding $2 trillion, its current weighting does not even place it among the top 20 constituents by percentage weight. The sharp increase in index weight will force passive funds and exchange-traded funds tracking the benchmark to adjust their portfolios and purchase billions of dollars in SpaceX stock, including the $482 billion Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1, one of the largest ETFs in the world tracking the Nasdaq 100, while over 200 investment products track the index, managing more than $800 billion in total assets globally.