Why you may own a piece of Elon Musk’s rocket

According to Amid Faljaoui,an economics columnist for the Belgian media outlet RTBF, many investors own SpaceX shares without even having chosen to do so or being aware of it.

Elon Musk’s company made a sensational debut on the financial markets and, upon doing so, was immediately included in the MSCI World Index, the global benchmark. The result? The so-called “index-tracking” funds that manage our group insurance, pension, and savings plans were forced to automatically purchase SpaceX shares to replicate this index—that is, to exactly mirror the official list of companies in the market. The billionaire’s rocket has thus automatically been incorporated into our retirement savings.

The situation, however, is cause for concern. Despite all these massive automatic purchases—which normally prop up stock prices— SpaceX’s stock has plummeted by a third. Market skepticism remains high toward a company that racked up nearly $5 billion in losses in 2025 and whose operations merged with xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence division, significantly increasing its volatility. “If AI stumbles, the stock plummets,” reports RTBF.

This observation serves as a wake-up call: index funds, often described as “prudent,” “neutral,” and “sensible,” blindly invest in the riskiest bets (without even asking for our consent). It is therefore advisable to analyze the holdings of your pension fund, because, as Amid Faljaoui points out, you may—quite unwittingly—own a piece of Mars.