{"id":"a591ab632b9c77c29c18a85e3071f6f0cbb77bb39697e3807b6787cee97981e2","title":"Aswath Damodaran argues the S&P 500 needs the companies more than they need the index","argument":"Aswath Damodaran’s post was published June 18, 2026. He argues that objections to adding SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic to the S&P 500 often reflect active managers’ interests and misplaced assumptions about protecting retail investors. He explains that index inclusion would not itself change the index level: changing the index units offsets the market value added and removed. But the new constituents would alter the index’s fundamentals, bringing more risk, a near-term hit to earnings and perhaps long-term growth.\n\nDamodaran argues that evidence of a smaller, more temporary price bump from S&P 500 additions weakens the claim that inclusion would materially lift these companies’ prices. 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