MSCI Decides October 16 Whether Strategy Stays in Its Indexes

MSCI expects to announce the results of its consultation on non-operating companies on or before October 16, 2026, per its own consultation document. The proposal would define non-operating companies and classify them as ineligible for inclusion in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes. Applied to the MSCI ACWI IMI as of May 2026, the proposed screen would result in three deletions: Strategy, Yellow Cake Plc and Metaplanet.

Strategy is the largest of the three on the document's own table. MSCI lists it as a US Large-cap constituent with a FIF market cap of USD 23,931 million. Yellow Cake, a UK Small cap, is listed at USD 1,807 million, and Japan's Metaplanet at USD 654 million.

A Two-Step Screen Decides Eligibility

The proposed test runs in order. First comes a Core Screen on whether an issuer counts as an operating company for index purposes. A company clears it if its financial reports show operating assets above 50% of total assets.

Fail that, and MSCI applies a second, Exclusion Screen built on five non-industry-specific financial ratios: operating asset intensity, expense intensity, cash flow, fair value intensity and capital dependence. An issuer is ineligible for index inclusion if it triggers at least four of the five flags.

Incumbents Get Two Annual Reviews Before Removal

The thresholds are looser for companies already inside the index. MSCI proposes operating asset intensity below 10% rather than 20%, and capital dependence above 30% rather than 20%, for current ACWI IMI constituents. Those constituents would be deleted only if they fail on the latest two annual reviews. That is the difference between a rule that screens a company out on arrival and a rule that removes one already held by index funds.

The same document proposes a new public watchlist for companies flagged as ineligible based solely on their latest filings. Three names would sit on it: Center Laboratories, Lydia Holding and SharpLink.

What the October 16 Date Settles

MSCI's timeline runs from the feedback period closing at the end of September 2026, to the results expected by October 16, to any implementation in the November 2026 Index Review. The document does not treat the outcome as fixed.

We expect to announce the consultation results on or before October 16, 2026, which may or may not result in changes to MSCI indexes.

For a company already inside the index, the sequence matters as much as the date. Even if MSCI adopts the proposal, an incumbent such as Strategy would come out through the November 2026 review, and only after failing the ineligibility screen on two consecutive annual reviews. MSCI's own illustration, run on May 2026 data, is the version of that outcome in which Strategy is one of three deletions.