New ETFs exclude Tesla and SpaceX from Nasdaq-100, S&P 500 exposure

Subversive ETFs filed two exchange-traded funds that would track the Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 while excluding companies tied to Elon Musk, a sharper twist on index investing that targets founder risk as much as market exposure. The funds are the Nasdaq-100 Ex-Elon Enterprises ETF, ticker QQNE, and the S&P 500 Ex-Elon Enterprises ETF, ticker SPNE.

The post-effective amendment, filed July 8 under Tidal Trust I, says the funds are actively managed and are designed to mirror their benchmark indexes while screening out companies founded, controlled, led by, or otherwise primarily associated with Musk. As of that filing, the excluded names were Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX. The Securities and Exchange Commission had not approved or disapproved the securities at the time of the filing, and the shares were not yet for sale.

The timing is notable. Coverage tied to the launch says the funds are scheduled to begin trading on September 21, 2026, just days after SpaceX’s addition to the Nasdaq-100 on July 7, 2026. That inclusion itself was expected to force a wave of index-driven purchases, with one estimate putting potential buying from QQQ alone at about $4.3 billion and as much as $27 billion across Nasdaq-100 and Russell-linked trackers.

That backdrop helps explain the pitch behind the new ETFs. They are aimed at investors who want broad market exposure without taking on the volatility, political baggage, or governance concerns that come with Musk’s public profile and sprawling role across multiple companies. Tesla has long been a core holding in major indexes, and SpaceX’s appearance in the Nasdaq-100 made the issue more immediate for funds that must own index constituents regardless of management preferences.

The products also fit a broader pattern in the ETF market, where managers have increasingly sliced mainstream benchmarks into narrower thematic bets that reflect investor views as much as market capitalization. In this case, the view is unusually personal: a fund that is not anti-tech or anti-large-cap, but explicitly ex-Elon. One analyst quoted in coverage questioned whether that distinction will attract meaningful demand, even as the filing suggests there is now enough concern around Musk-linked exposure to warrant a formal product category.