Major companies continue to relocate to Texas

• Major companies have been relocating their headquarters to Texas.
• Since 2020, some 200 companies, including Tesla and Coinbase, have moved to Texas.
• Gov. Greg Abbott has cited a good regulatory environment, drawing firms from states like California.

Texas has become a hot spot for the corporate operations of major companies across the US.

Since 2020, a growing number of major businesses have moved their headquarters or reincorporated in Texas, fleeing states like California and Delaware. Many cite the lower cost of living and new benefits for corporations as reasons they chose the Lone Star State.

Relocations were in an “acceleration period” in 2020 and 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said. A total of 121 companies moved to Texas during that time. The number of those coming from California made up more than half of the relocations.

Since then, while major companies continue to move — Coinbase being the latest example — the rate has leveled out. A total of 200 companies have moved to Texas since 2020, according to data from Abbot’s office. In 2024, 24 companies, including Chevron and SpaceX, said they would establish headquarters there.

The moves are fueled by the “reasonable regulatory environment,” “exceptional quality of life,” and the lower cost of operating a business in Texas, Abbott’s office says.

Here’s a list of companies that have shifted their business operations to Texas.

KFC

Yum! Brands announced in February that it would establish two HQ locations in Texas and California to “foster greater collaboration among brands and employees.”

About 100 KFC corporate workers will have to relocate from Louisville, Kentucky, to Texas over six months. The company said it will also ask 90 US-based remote workers to return to the office and relocate to “the campus where their work happens.”

Yum! Brands is the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger & Grill. The KFC Foundation and Yum! Brands are expected to maintain corporate offices in Kentucky.

The New York Stock Exchange, Chicago

On February 12, the New York Stock Exchange announced it would move its Chicago branch to Dallas. NYSE Chicago will be reincorporated as NYSE Texas, “offering companies the opportunity to list their securities” there.

“As the state with the largest number of NYSE listings, representing over $3.7 trillion in market value for our community, Texas is a market leader in fostering a pro-business atmosphere,” Lynn Martin, NYSE Group president, said in a press release.

Chevron

Chevron said in August 2024 that its headquarters would move from San Ramon, California, to Houston before the end of the year.

The energy giant said the relocation would “enable better collaboration and engagement with executives, employees, and business partners.”

The oil company had been sued by California, which accused Chevron and other energy giants of downplaying the risks of fossil fuels.

“WELCOME HOME Chevron! Texas is your true home,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted on X.

Before the move, Chevron had about 7,000 employees in the Houston area and 2,000 in San Ramon. It said it expects all corporate functions to move to Texas by 2029.

X

Musk announced X’s relocation from California to Texas at the same time as SpaceX in July 2024, citing living costs, safety, and political reasons.

He said California laws are “attacking both families and companies” and expressed concerns over the safety of San Francisco. Court filings from September 2024 showed that Musk requested to change X’s HQ address from San Francisco to Bastrop, Texas, Forbes reported.

Tesla

Tesla was the first of Musk’s companies to move from Silicon Valley to Texas. Musk officially moved Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin in 2021, citing the lack of affordable housing in the Bay Area.

He reincorporated the company from Delaware to Texas in 2024, following a Delaware court’s decision to void his proposed compensation package.

Oracle

Oracle moved its corporate HQ to Austin in 2020, ending its four-decade tenure in Silicon Valley.

The move offered employees “more flexibility about where and how they work,” a spokesperson told Business Insider at the time.

Although it has been years since the move, Oracle’s California offices employ nearly three times the number of workers as its Texas headquarters, Bloomberg reported in 2024.

CBRE

Brokerage giant CBRE moved its HQ from Los Angeles to Dallas in 2020.

It was established in San Francisco over a century ago, though CBRE said it had large operations in North Texas before the official move to Dallas.

According to data from CBRE, Texas led the pack in net gains of Fortune 500 companies relocating between 2018 and 2023.

AECOM

AECOM, a Fortune 500 construction firm, said it would relocate its headquarters from Los Angeles to Dallas in 2021.

The company called Texas a “talent magnet” for consulting and engineering, and CEO Troy Rudd participated in the move to AECOM’s existing Texas offices from California.

SpaceX

Musk announced his plans to relocate SpaceX from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas, on X in July 2024.

The move was Musk’s response to Gov. Gavin Newsom signing AB 1955, prohibiting schools from enforcing policies that would require parents to be notified about students who may identify as transgender.

“Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas,” Musk said in an X post.

Charles Schwab

Financial services company Charles Schwab moved its HQ to Westlake, Texas, in 2021, citing California’s high taxes. It was formerly based in San Francisco.

“The costs of doing business here are so much higher than some other place,” Chairman and founder Charles Schwab told Forbes.

McKesson

McKesson announced that it’d move its HQ from San Francisco to Las Colinas, Texas, in 2018, with plans to move most jobs from Silicon Valley to Texas and other hub locations by 2021.

Four years after the move, CEO Brian Tyler said the city “was absolutely the right community for McKesson to call home.”

“Since making the move to Irving, McKesson has quickly benefited from the deep, diverse talent pool in the Dallas area, the ease of travel, and the very engaged business community,” he said.

Coinbase

Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to leave Delaware and reincorporate in Texas, its chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, wrote in a column in The Wall Street Journal.

Texas has become “an increasingly attractive hub for innovative companies like ours,” Grewal wrote. “It’s a shame that it has come to this, but Delaware has left us with little choice.”

He added that recent legislation in Texas has made the state more attractive for the company.

“Senate Bill 29 modernized the Texas Business Organizations Code to codify the business-judgment rule, which rightly empowers directors and officers to make the business decisions they need to innovate,” Grewal wrote, referring to new legislation that gives companies more predictability in corporate governance disputes. “This bill, together with the establishment of the Texas Business Court system, gives companies a business-friendly legal ecosystem with strong protections and efficient dispute resolution.”

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