The surprisingly lucrative business of making a list of 500 stocks

Alex Mayyasi

September 23, 2025 / 9:00 am

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Once a month, from 1989 to 2019, David Blitzer walked into a well-appointed conference room with a view of downtown Manhattan to discuss the 500 largest and most important public companies in the U.S., the ones whose stock just about any American can buy.

Blitzer was a member of, and then chair of, the committee that makes the S&P 500. It's like the Billboard Hot 100, except instead of ranking the most popular songs in America, it lists the most valuable companies. Sabrina Carpenter wants to keep releasing pop anthems that kee

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