Another major U.S. company is opting to expand outside the jurisdiction of high-tax blue states. In other news, it’s a Thursday.
Apollo Global Management Inc. is planning to open a second U.S. headquarters in either south Florida or Texas. The investment giant already has a headquarters in New York City, but says it expects most of its future growth to take place in the new location.
This is just another example of what seems to be an accelerating trend. High-tax states like New York, California and Massachusetts continue to take for granted their status as business hubs as major employers look for places with lower costs to expand or set up shop.
These states have failed to strike a balance between expensive progressive policies and shaking down the businesses that bankroll them. New York ranked last on the Tax Foundation’s 2026 competitiveness index. Massachusetts and California were also in the bottom ten.
The pandemic broke the spell. The flexibility of remote work allowed businesses — as well as their owners and employees — to get a taste of better governance and higher quality of life at a lower price. From 2020 to 2023, about 2.5 percent of the country’s investment companies relocated their headquarters to a different state.
Various major investment firms are expanding beyond traditional financial hubs, reflecting a broader geographic shift in the industry. An Apollo spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company’s new headquarters is “driven by the talent we want to hire and the firm we want to be. New York does not have a monopoly on talent.”
Florida and Texas have emerged as the biggest beneficiaries of this migration. Companies such as Citadel, ARK Investment Management, and Icahn Capital Management have established a growing presence in the Sunshine State, while Wells Fargo & Co. is relocating its wealth management headquarters from San Francisco to West Palm Beach.
Texas continues to attract expansion from players like Vanguard, Fidelity, and Goldman Sachs. Charles Schwab moved its headquarters from San Francisco to the Dallas area in 2021. Beyond these two states, North Carolina and Tennessee are also gaining ground, drawing hundreds of billions in new assets.
It isn’t just assets migrating south. Talent pipelines are also expanding geographically. California and the northeast’s vice grip on higher education is slackening as SEC schools grow in popularity.
Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-New York) conceded that businesses are leaving the state “because of the tax rate.” The governor called on wealthy New Yorkers to go down to Palm Beach to see who they “can bring back home.” Hochul’s envoys would have an easier time if they could promise lower taxes.
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